North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Tuesday, South Korea's military said, marking Pyongyang's latest show of force just days ahead of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's return to office.

John Kirby, White House national security communications adviser, said of Hegseth's remarks on North Korea's status as a nuclear power: "We've not made such a recognition. I can't speak to what the incoming team will—how they'll characterize it. We've not gone so far as to make that recognition."

Hundreds of North Korean troops have been killed fighting against Ukraine over the last few months, according to South Korea ’s intelligence agency. The National Intelligence Service (NIS) of South Korea said 300 of Pyongyang’s troops have been killed and another 2,700 wounded since joining Vladimir Putin’s forces last year.

The JCS said the South Korean military has heightened surveillance for additional launches and maintaining a readiness posture to share info with the U.S. and Japan.

A South Korean lawmaker said Seoul's intelligence showed some 3,000 North Korean troops have been wounded or killed in Kursk.

South Korea’s military says North Korea has test-fired multiple missiles toward its eastern waters in its second launch event of 2025.

South Korea and NATO on Wednesday urged North Korea and Russia to halt their military cooperation. The demand came after Seoul claimed at least 300 North Korean soldiers died while fighting Ukraine on behalf of Russia.

Russia signed a strategic partnership treaty with Iran on Friday that follows similar pacts with China and North Korea. All three countries are adversaries of the United States, and Russia has used its ties with them to help blunt the impact of Western sanctions and boost its war effort in Ukraine.

North Korea condemned on Friday joint military drills between South Korea, Japan and the United States held this week, threatening to respond by exercising its right to self-defence "more intensively".

If North Korea's current rate of losses remains unchanged, it'll take another three months for Pyongyang to lose all of the estimated 12,000 troops deployed in the Kursk area, according to an estimate by researchers at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

North Korea's ever tightening embrace of Russia is one critical issue facing the incoming Trump administration.