The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said Friday that flu cases are rising sharply in South Korea, marking the biggest flu outbreak in that nation since 2016.

Although the precise details of the arrangement have not been made public, there has been considerable media coverage of North Korea’s dispatch of combat troops to Russia to support Vladimir Putin’s offensive in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that several “seriously wounded” North Korean soldiers died from their injuries after being captured by Ukrainian forces.

"Through various sources of information and intelligence, we assess that North Korean troops who have recently engaged in combat with Ukrainian forces have suffered around 1,100 casualties," the JCS said in a statement.

An injured North Korean soldier captured by Ukrainian forces has died, according to South Korean media. The man is thought to be the first North Korean prisoner of war taken into custody since Pyongyang sent troops to aid Russia in the conflict in Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that "several" wounded North Korean soldiers died after being captured by Ukrainian forces, as he accused Russia of throwing them into battle with "minimal protection".

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently said there have been over 3,000 North Korean casualties in Kursk. South Korea reported over 1,000 casualties last week. Newsweek has not verified either figure. Neither Pyongyang nor Moscow has acknowledged the presence of North Korean troops in Russia.

In our news wrap Monday, South Korea's acting president ordered an inspection of the entire aviation sector after a plane crash killed 179 people, President Biden announced $2.5 billion in aid to Ukraine,

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un says he will implement the “toughest” anti-U.S. policy, less than a month before Donald Trump takes office as U.S. president

South Korea's policy agency said on Tuesday it was making efforts to expedite the process of identifying dead bodies from the Jeju Air plane crash that killed 179 people on Sunday.

A third year of war in Ukraine drags on as the new year and the conflict's February anniversary approach. The war in 2024 saw major shifts on the battlefield and in Western politics.