Western officials have told the BBC that North Korean troops have already suffered nearly 40% casualties in the fighting in Russia's western Kursk region, in just three months.

North Korea had sent 11,000 soldiers to assist Russia, many of whom were killed. The Pentagon expects a new batch to arrive at the front, The New York Times reports, citing a senior US Department of Defense official.

North Korea will send reinforcements to join its troops fighting alongside Russia against Ukraine in the next two months, The New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing a senior U.S. Department of Defense official.

A thousand North Korean troops who have been fighting in the Kursk region of Russia have been killed in Vladimir Putin ’s war with Ukraine, officials have said. Western officials have told the BBC that 36 per cent of North Korean forces fighting in Russia had been killed, injured or captured by mid-January.

Ukrainian forces described a different kind of enemy, fighting with unfamiliar tactics and little option to retreat.

"I didn't even know who we were fighting against," the captured soldier from Pyongyang told Ukraine's Security Service.

Soldiers of the 8th Regiment of Ukraine's Special Operations Forces resisted an assault of North Korean soldiers in Russia’s Kursk Oblast for eight hours, killing 21 and wounding 40, the unit said on Jan.

The report highlights that North Korean soldiers have developed unique battlefield tactics, such as using a soldier as bait to shoot down drones or detonating grenades, holding it under the neck with one hand on the pin when the Ukrainian military approaches to avoid capture when severely wounded.

Around 1,000 North Korean soldiers have been killed and 3,000 wounded while fighting in Russia’s war against Ukraine, the BBC’s Russian service reported Wednesday, citing unnamed Western officials. North Korea is believed to have sent thousands of troops last fall to help the Russian military drive out Ukrainian forces that are occupying the