#KOREA

Officials said the first missiles could be built within three years.

Relentless traveler Wojciech Kopeć was visiting his 105th country.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) has reported that North Korea has sent additional troops to support Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, with the newly deployed forces already stationed on the front lines in Russia’s Kursk region.

Ukraine is prepared to swap recently captured North Korean prisoners of war for Ukrainian soldiers held by Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) said on Friday that Ukrainian forces captured an injured North Korean soldier who had been dispatched to support Russia's war effort, and that the man later died from his wounds.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol did not comply with a summons from prosecutors on Sunday, and they plan to issue another order as they investigate his short-lived martial law decree, Yonhap news agency reported.

North Korean soldiers killed eight Russian troops in an incident of “friendly fire”, according to Ukrainian intelligence.

Although suspended, Yoon remains in office.

Poland has said that arms contracts with South Korea will remain unaffected despite the introduction of a short-lived martial law that threw the country into chaos.

Polish officials are visiting Pyongyang as they seek to restore their country’s permanent diplomatic presence in North Korea, the Foreign Ministry in Warsaw said on Friday.

North Korea will back Russia until it achieves victory in the Ukraine war, Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said on Friday at talks in Moscow with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

South Korea is considering sending a team of military monitors to Ukraine to observe and analyze the expected deployment of North Korean troops by Russia on the frontlines of the conflict there, a presidential official said on Wednesday.

Ukrainian prosecutors said on Friday they had launched an investigation into North Korea's support for Russia in the war as a possible crime of aggression.

A deal allowing South Korean K2 tanks to be produced in Poland could be signed in coming weeks, Polish president Andrzej Duda said on Friday, a potential boost for Warsaw's plans to build up its defences.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Polish President Andrzej Duda on Thursday condemned North Korea's dispatch of troops to Russia for its war against Ukraine as a global security threat, Yoon's office said.

A Chinese mercenary fighting for Russia has claimed that eight North Korean officers were killed during their first day of deployment in Ukraine.

Thousands of North Korean troops are being prepared to fight on Russia's behalf in Ukraine and some North Korean officers have already been deployed there, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday.

Kim Jong Un, the North Korean strongman, has pledged his country’s “full support” for the Russian war in Ukraine as Vladimir Putin arrived in Pyongyang on a high-profile visit.

South Korea's defense minister will visit Poland this week to help reinforce ties between the two countries already buoyed by billions of dollars of arms purchases.

South Korean company Posco International has broken ground on a 100,000-square-meter production facility in the southwestern Polish town of Brzeg in an investment reported to eventually reach almost $150 million.