Losses ‘caused by lack of experience’ but Kim Jong-un may dispatch country’s special operations force to help Russia

The United States believes North Korea has suffered "several hundred" troop casualties during combat alongside Russian forces against Ukraine, a Pentagon spokesperson said Thursday, noting that the figure could go up.

Russia's war in Ukraine is reverberating around the world, with dozens of countries directly or indirectly involved.

Pyongyang's troops fighting alongside Vladimir Putin's forces in Russia's Kursk region are being killed and injured according to the U.S.

Lack of combat experience with drones and unfamiliarity with operating in open terrain may be the reason for the significant losses suffered by North Korean forces, he said, citing data from the National Intelligence Service (NIS).

Ukraine claimed over the weekend that North Korean troops accidentally shot at Russian vehicles in a "friendly fire" incident that left eight dead.

Russia is "irrefutably" using North Korean missiles in Ukraine, according to the independent organization Conflict Armament Research (CAR).

At least 100 North Korean troops deployed to Russia have been killed with another 1,000 injured in combat against Ukrainian forces in intense fighting in the Kursk region, a South Korean lawmaker said on Thursday citing the country's spy agency.

Possible technological transfers from Moscow to Pyongyang are a concern fo Seoul and Tokyo, while Beijing juggles its interests to remain equidistant

The figures mark the first significant U.S. assessment of North Korean losses since their deployment to aid Russia's war effort.

Pyongyang claimed on Thursday that its alliance with Russia was ‘normal’ and ‘very effective’, despite international alarm about the deployment of North Korean troops to the war in Ukraine