Newly uncovered documents reveal Russia’s decade-old war preparation plans to strike over eighty military and civilian facilities in South Korea, including Pohang Steelworks and chemical plants in Busan. On Wednesday, the Financial Times reported that it ...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently said there have been over 3,000 North Korean casualties in Kursk. South Korea reported over 1,000 casualties last week. Newsweek has not verified either figure. Neither Pyongyang nor Moscow has acknowledged the presence of North Korean troops in Russia.

South Korea's military has said that North Korea is preparing to continue aiding Russia in its war with Ukraine, despite casualties.

Ukrainian special forces have released several excerpts from a purported diary it said was found on a North Korean soldier killed in front-line fighting in Russia.

Russia and Japan have never signed an official peace treaty to end the second world war because of a dispute over the Kuril Islands. The Soviet army seized the Kurils at the end of the war in 1945 and expelled Japanese residents from the islands, which are now home to about 20,000 Russians.

Despite their elite status, North Korea's "Storm" troops were ill-prepared for the war, South Korea's National Intelligence Service said.

"Through various sources of information and intelligence, we assess that North Korean troops who have recently engaged in combat with Ukrainian forces have suffered around 1,100 casualties," the JCS said in a statement.

The Financial Times has reported that the Russian military has developed lists of targets containing 160 sites in Japan and South Korea in the event of war.

Beijing has yet to announce the closing ceremony for its "Year of Friendship" with Pyongyang, a possible signal of disapproval.

Although the precise details of the arrangement have not been made public, there has been considerable media coverage of North Korea’s dispatch of combat troops to Russia to support Vladimir Putin’s offensive in Ukraine.