North Korea will send Russia another 150 short-range ballistic missiles this year. Pyongyang is also likely to transfer additional howitzers, as the head of Ukraine's intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, said in an interview with The War Zone.

North Korean troops have been deployed to bolster Russian forces in the Kursk border region with Ukraine, where they are gaining battlefield experience despite initial heavy losses.

North Korea is “significantly benefiting” from its troops gaining battlefield experience fighting alongside Russian forces as it makes them more capable of waging war against rivals South Korea and Japan, a US official warned the UN.

Western officials have told the BBC that North Korean troops have already suffered nearly 40% casualties in the fighting in Russia's western Kursk region, in just three months. The officials, who spoke on grounds of anonymity,