North Korea is expanding a weapons plant that manufactures missiles used by Russia against Ukraine, according to new research from a US-based think tank.

In this volatile and extremely uncertain landscape, South Korea has little to gain and much to lose by taking premature action that might harm its national interests.

North Korean soldiers deployed to Kursk to fight with Moscow's forces against Ukraine are well trained but are not being sent into combat, according to a Russian military blogger. Moscow is tight-lipped about the presence of troops sent by Pyongyang to help with its operation to oust Ukrainian troops in the Russian region where they staged an incursion on August 6.