North Korean forces deployed in Russia’s Kursk region may soon be sent into annexed regions of Ukraine that remain fiercely contested by Russian and Ukrainian forces, a senior Ukrainian official said.
Some North Korean hospitals are posting prices for treatment and medicine in a break from past practice that suggests authorities are abandoning the goal of providing free health care, sources in the country have told Radio Free Asia.
The North Korean army is ordering soldiers to stop scrounging the streets for cigarette butts to smoke even as commanders keep some of the soldiers’ monthly cigarette rations for themselves, members of the country’s military told Radio Free Asia.
North Korea publicly executed three men — shooting each one with 90 rounds from a machine gun — for attempting to flee to democratic South Korea, a witness and a resident who heard about the execution told Radio Free Asia.
A North Korean soldier captured in Russia has given the first public account of conditions supporting Russian forces, struggling with a language barrier, inadequate support and Ukrainian drones on what he had been told was a training mission.
Although it isn’t legal for women to obtain drivers’ licenses, it isn’t exactly easy for men to get them either. Only men who are in the military or work in a factory and are approved by the government are eligible to undergo driver training, which can take three to six months to complete.
Bitter cold in North Korea has forced schools to close, hospitals go into emergency mode and water supplies to be disrupted as pumps freeze over, residents in the country told Radio Free Asia.
North Korean authorities have threatened to punish citizens who spread “rumors” about the country’s soldiers dying in Russia’s war with Ukraine — and ordered people to snitch on each other about this, residents in the country told Radio Free Asia.
Three North Korean soldiers killed five Russian servicemen in Russia’s Kursk region and the “armed and dangerous” Koreans were being hunted, according to a Russian military telegram channel.
North Korean soldiers are fighting with deteriorated supplies and outdated weapons and may have been carrying no food rations during their recent combat operations in Russia’s Kursk region, a Ukrainian special operations sergeant told Radio Free Asia.