Ukraine's president has said North Korean forces have returned to the front line in Russia's western Kursk region, after reports they had recently been withdrawn due to heavy casualties.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said during his Friday evening address: "New assaults took place in the areas of the Kursk operation—the Russian army with North Korean soldiers brought in again. A significant number of occupiers have been eliminated, we're talking hundreds of Russian and North Korean servicemen."

Ukraine is fighting a war against two nuclear weapons countries: Russia, a signatory of the non-proliferation treaty, and North Korea, which is not. Since 2014, Moscow has been undermining the logic and letter of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) with its nuclear posturing.

N. Korea faces significant losses in the war, with families reportedly bribing to keep their sons from conscription. Read more at straitstimes.com.

North Korea sent its best troops to aid Russia in its war against Ukraine. But after months of suffering severe losses, they have been taken off the front line.

A military source, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive information, described a marked improvement in the precision in all the more than 20 North Korean ballistic missile

"The worst problem we are facing is the one coming from North Korea," the head of Kyiv's military intelligence agency said in the fall.

This is almost certainly primarily due to heavy losses sustained during attacks against Ukrainian-held positions.” Reports differ on the scale of the losses but one put them as high as 4,000 North Korean soldiers killed or wounded.