U.S. intelligence agencies believe that North Korea's troop deployment to Russia was Pyongyang's idea, The New York Times reported Monday.

North Korean troops fighting alongside Russia in southern Kursk got drunk on New Year's Eve, according to Ukrainian intelligence sources.

Secretive North Korea has one of the world’s largest militaries, with 1.28 million active soldiers, but unlike in Russia, the Korean People's Army (KPA) has no recent experience of combat. Pyongyang’s army is “thoroughly indoctrinated but with low readiness,” says Mark Cancian, from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

There are risks of North Korea sending additional troops and military equipment to the Russian army,” Zelensky said. “We will have tangible responses to this.”

A North Korean soldier who was captured while fighting in Russia's war against Ukraine has died of his wounds, South Korea's spy agency said Friday. Pyongyang has deployed thousands of troops to reinforce Russia's military, including in the Kursk border region where Ukraine mounted a shock border incursion in August.

"There are risks of North Korea sending additional troops and military equipment to the Russian army," Zelenskiy said on X after receiving a report from his top military commander Oleksandr Syrskyi. "We will have tangible responses to this,

NATO has previously described the deployment of North Korean soldiers to Russia as a "significant escalation" in the conflict.

Ukrainian military intelligence has claimed that North Korean soldiers are struggling in the war against Ukraine and have turned to alcohol to cope