"It is clear that Russian and North Korean military leaders are treating these troops as expendable and ordering them on hopeless assaults against Ukrainian defenses," National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby said on Dec.

The United States has said that North Korean soldiers fighting against Ukraine on the side of Russia in Kursk Oblast are committing suicide to avoid being captured by the Ukrainian defence forces. Source: White House representative John Kirby at a briefing on Friday,

Reports suggest that many of the soldiers deployed to Russia are among the best from North Korea's Storm Corps, who are skilled in infiltration and assassination