North Korean troops have not been seen on the frontlines in Russia’s Kursk region for several weeks, a Ukrainian military official said Friday, amid reports of mass casualties among Pyongyang’s forces.

Separately, the New York Times also reported that the North Koreans had been pulled off the front lines. Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un have in recent months deepened bilateral ties, signing a security and defence treaty.

North Koreans fake tuberculosis to avoid participating in Russia's war. Families spend more than 100 times the average monthly salary on fake medical certificates to protect their husbands from being sent to the war zone,

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.

Soldiers fighting the war in Ukraine have revealed that some of the North Korean troops who are helping the Russian's blow themselves up or bite their open wounds

Facing exhaustion and North Korean troops, these soldiers fighting for Ukraine say the war needs to end. A CBC News team spoke to them before they headed back to the front line, trying to hold territory seized in Russia's Kursk region.

A Ukrainian special forces commander says North Korean troops have moved back from the fighting for roughly a fortnight