North Korean soldiers previously fighting alongside Russia’s army on the Kursk front line appear not to have been engaged in combat since mid-January, South Korea’s spy agency told AFP Tuesday, after Ukraine claimed they had been withdrawn following heavy losses.

January, there have been no signs showing North Korean troops deployed to the Russian Kursk region engaging in battle," South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) said, suggesting that heavy losses may have been one of the reasons for their withdrawal.