A South Korean lawmaker said Seoul's intelligence showed some 3,000 North Korean troops have been wounded or killed in Kursk.

Hundreds of North Korean troops have been killed fighting against Ukraine over the last few months, according to South Korea ’s intelligence agency. The National Intelligence Service (NIS) of South Korea said 300 of Pyongyang’s troops have been killed and another 2,700 wounded since joining Vladimir Putin’s forces last year.

Pyongyang's first test-fire of 2025 came as Blinken, America's top diplomat, met with South Korea's acting President Choi Sang-mok. Choi assumed the interim role after the South Korean Parliament voted to impeach a second president in two weeks.

North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Tuesday, South Korea's military said, marking Pyongyang's latest show of force just days ahead of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's return to office.

South Korea and NATO on Wednesday urged North Korea and Russia to halt their military cooperation. The demand came after Seoul claimed at least 300 North Korean soldiers died while fighting Ukraine on behalf of Russia.

Russia signed a strategic partnership treaty with Iran on Friday that follows similar pacts with China and North Korea. All three countries are adversaries of the United States, and Russia has used its ties with them to help blunt the impact of Western sanctions and boost its war effort in Ukraine.

North Korea condemned on Friday joint military drills between South Korea, Japan and the United States held this week, threatening to respond by exercising its right to self-defence "more intensively".

South Korea’s military says North Korea has test-fired multiple missiles toward its eastern waters in its second launch event of 2025.

Eight days after Pyongyang launched a hypersonic ballistic missile, it fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles into the sea.

North Korea's ever tightening embrace of Russia is one critical issue facing the incoming Trump administration.