The North Korean troops are treated as expendable and sent on "hopeless" assaults, they said. North Korean forces are suffering heavy casualties as they carry out "human wave" attacks against Ukrainian troops, a White House spokesperson has said.

At least 47 people were killed when an airliner veered off the runway and erupted into a fireball as it slammed into a wall at South Korea's Muan International Airport on Sunday, Yonhap news agency reported.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has alleged that North Korean troops are being used as human shields to counter Ukrainian offensives. Pyongyang has deployed a contingent of at least 11,000 troops to Russia, most of whom are fighting in the Russian region of Kursk,