South Korea's top envoy to the United Nations said Thursday that North Korean troops are being dissipated as "expendables" in Russia's war against Ukraine and treated as a "cynical" means of sustaining the North Korean regime.

North Korean soldiers did not know they were being sent to the aggressor country of russia to fight against Ukraine. They were told they were participating in

North Korea warned Friday that it would exercise its right to self-defense "more intensively" as it condemned recent joint air drills among South Korea, the United States and Japan.

North Korea has not responded to reports of its troops captured or killed by Ukraine forces. It has never publicised the deployment or large shipments of North Korean artillery shells and other weapons sent to Russia to help its war against Ukraine, although they marked the country’s first intervention in a major armed conflict overseas in decades.

Over 12,000 North Korean troops are estimated to be fighting against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region, the United Nations Security Council learned last week.

North Korean troops have been taking part in active combat on Russia's side in the country's Kursk Oblast, where Ukraine has held territory since August. This unprecedented move, made against the backdrop of a deepening Moscow-Pyongyang alliance,

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