North Korean leader Kim Jong-un reportedly sent New Year’s messages to North Korean soldiers deployed in Russia's war against Ukraine, urging them to "fight with courage" until the end, according to a news report.

The soldiers of the Korean People's Army captured from the front lines of the war in Ukraine appeared unwilling to defect from North Korea.

North Korea has not responded to reports of its troops captured or killed by Ukraine forces. It has never publicised the deployment or large shipments of North Korean artillery shells and other weapons sent to Russia to help its war against Ukraine, although they marked the country’s first intervention in a major armed conflict overseas in decades.

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.

As fatalities mount questions remain as to how well equipped North Korean soliders dropped into the region are. But one prisoner of war reveals there may be less of them than we think

One of the two North Korean soldiers captured by Ukraine this month has claimed that he arrived in Russia without knowing whom he would be fighting, according to another video of his interrogation released by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky reported that prisoners from North Korea have confirmed their transfer to Russia and a complete cut-off from external information. North Korean POWs, interrogated by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU),