North Korean ballistic missiles have been striking targets in Ukraine with increasing accuracy in recent weeks compared to over the past year — suggesting the Hermit Kingdom is using the battlefield as a testing ground for its new tech.

N. Korea faces significant losses in the war, with families reportedly bribing to keep their sons from conscription. Read more at straitstimes.com.

North Korean troops have not been seen on the frontlines in Russia’s Kursk region for several weeks, a Ukrainian military official said Friday, amid reports of mass casualties among Pyongyang’s forces.

Though North Korean ballistic missiles account for only a small portion of Russia's missile strikes they carry a large warhead of up to one tonne and have a range of up to 800 km, the military source said. The Iskander-M, an equivalent Russian missile, carries a smaller payload and has a shorter range of 500 km.

North Korea sent its best troops to aid Russia in its war against Ukraine. But after months of suffering severe losses, they have been taken off the front line.

"The worst problem we are facing is the one coming from North Korea," the head of Kyiv's military intelligence agency said in the fall.

It also shed some light on the mindset and training of the conscripted North Korean soldiers sent to fight Russia’s war a continent away from their home. Highly disciplined, ready to die but also very young and with little battlefield experience they elicited curiosity and even some pity from the Ukrainian soldiers who captured them during two separate missions on Jan.