North Korean troops supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are conducting ground assaults against Ukrainian forces that have led to “heavy casualties,” a White House spokesman said.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that several “seriously wounded” North Korean soldiers died from their injuries after being captured by Ukrainian forces.

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).

In one week there were more than a thousand North Koreans casualties in the fight with Russia against Ukraine. U.S. officials say they are sent into battle with little equipment or preparation.

Far from their homes in one of the world’s most isolated and secretive states, about 11,000 North Korean soldiers find themselves at the center of Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II.

After two years of intense courtship, progressing from warm words to vital weapons, summits in Pyongyang to 11,000 soldiers on the ground in Russia, the burgeoning relationship between Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un was signed in blood this week when the first stories emerged of North Korean casualties on the Ukrainian battlefield.

According to Newsweek, the Ukrainian military has initiated strategic operations targeting North Korean soldiers operating under Moscow's command. Ad