At least 126 dead, scores injured in 6.8 magnitude earthquake near holy city in Tibet, Chinese media reports
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(TIBET) — At least 126 people were killed and more than 188 others were injured as a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck near Tibet’s holy city on Tuesday, according to Chinese state media.
The earthquake occurred in Dingri County, Shigatse City, Tibet, just after 9 a.m. with a focal depth of 10 kilometers, according to the China Earthquake Networks Centre. More than 3,600 houses had collapsed, state media said.
The U.S. Geological Survey placed the earthquake’s magnitude at 7.1, pinpointing the epicenter in Xizang, the local name for the Tibet Autonomous Region.
“The region near the India and Eurasia plate boundary has a history of large earthquakes,” the USGS said in a summary of the quake. “In the past century, there have been 10 earthquakes of magnitude 6 and greater within 250 km of the January 7, 2025, earthquake.”
The Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism’s exiled spiritual leader, said in a statement that he was “saddened” to learn of the deadly earthquake.
“It has caused the tragic loss of many lives, numerous injuries, and extensive destruction to homes and property,” he said. “I offer my prayers for those who have lost their lives and extend my wishes for a swift recovery to all who have been injured.”
The Chinese media also reported that as of 10 a.m. local time, multiple aftershocks were recorded, the largest of which was 4.4.
The death toll has risen steadily in the hours since the earthquake, according to Xinhua, a state media outlet. First reported at 53, with about 60 other injured, it climbed hours later to about 95 dead and 130 injured, the outlet reported.
(LONDON) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy predicted that his nation’s forces would “undoubtedly” capture more North Korean troops, after sharing purported video of two prisoners of war detained after being wounded in fighting in Russia’s western Kursk region.
“It’s only a matter of time before our troops manage to capture others,” Zelenskyy said in a post to social media, accompanied with brief video interviews with two North Korean soldiers.
The short videos showed the two apparently wounded men giving brief answers to a Ukrainian interviewer via a translator.
One said he was told by commanders that he was being deployed as part of a training exercise, according to the translation. The prisoner said he entered combat on Jan. 3, in an unsuccessful assault with heavy casualties. He hid in a dugout until Jan. 5 when he said he was captured.
Neither man appeared to know they had been taken to Ukraine. One said he wished to return to North Korea, while the other said he hoped to remain in Ukraine.
ABC News could not immediately verify the videos.
U.S., Ukrainian and South Korean officials have estimated that Pyongyang has sent up to 12,000 soldiers to Russia to assist Moscow in retaking parts of Kursk Oblast seized by Ukrainian forces in a surprise August 2023 offensive.
The deployment of troops represented a new level of North Korean support for Russia’s war, Pyongyang having previously supplied Moscow with significant amounts of ammunition and weapons including ballistic missiles.
Zelenskyy said Sunday there should be “no doubt left in the world that the Russian army is dependent on military assistance from North Korea.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin, he added, “started three years ago with ultimatums to NATO and attempts to rewrite history, but now he cannot manage without military support from Pyongyang.”
Zelenskyy said Kyiv is “ready to hand over Kim Jong Un’s soldiers to him if he can organize their exchange for our warriors who are being held captive in Russia.”
“For those North Korean soldiers who do not wish to return, there may be other options available,” he added. “In particular, those who express a desire to bring peace closer by spreading the truth about this war in Korean will be given that opportunity.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on the proposal for a prisoner swap when asked by reporters on Monday. “We cannot comment in any way, we do not know what is true there,” Peskov said, as quoted by Russian media.
Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces, meanwhile, said it killed another 17 North Korean soldiers in Kursk, defeating a daylong assault by Pyongyang’s troops.
The SSO said that one North Korean soldier also attempted to “mislead” Ukrainian forces and “blow himself up with them on a grenade.” The North Korean was killed by the blast with no Ukrainians hurt, the SSO reported.
Zelenskyy previously reported that more than 3,000 North Koreans had been killed or wounded fighting in Kursk, while U.S. estimates put the figure at several hundred.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported on Monday that the country’s spy agency believes that at least 300 North Korean soldiers have been killed and 2,700 injured since being deployed to Russia.
Rep. Lee Seong-kweun, of the ruling People Power Party, told Yonhap that the National Intelligence Service shared the information with lawmakers during a closed-door meeting of the parliamentary intelligence committee.
The NIS attributed the “massive” rate of North Korean casualties to a “lack of understanding of modern warfare,” Yonhap said. That included “useless” attempts to shoot down long-range drones.
The NIS also said the North Korean military has ordered soldiers to kill themselves to avoid capture by Ukrainian forces.
(LONDON) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that more 3,000 North Korean soldiers are believed to have been killed or wounded fighting for Moscow in Russia’s western Kursk region.
Zelenskyy posted to Telegram on Monday following a briefing by Kyiv’s top commander — Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi — on the ongoing battle in Kursk, underway since Ukrainian troops launched a surprise cross-border incursion there in August.
“There are risks of sending additional soldiers and military equipment to the Russian army from North Korea,” Zelenskyy said, vowing “tangible responses” to any such move. “According to preliminary data, the number of killed and wounded North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region already exceeds 3,000 people.”
Ukrainian special forces claimed on Monday to have inflicted more than 100 casualties among North Korean forces over three days of operations.
Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces branch claimed in a post to its official Telegram channel that 77 North Koreans were killed and 40 wounded in recent fighting.
On Sunday, the SSO posted photos of what it said were North Korean troops killed in Russia’s western Kursk region. The SSO also uploaded photos of purportedly fabricated Russian military identity cards. ABC News was not immediately able to independently verify the images.
“Russia is trying to hide the presence of military personnel from North Korea by issuing them with fake documents,” the SSO wrote.
It added that the documents “do not have all the seals, photographs, the patronymics are given in the Russian manner and the place of birth is signed as the Republic of Tuva,” the home region of Sergei Shoigu — formerly Russia’s defense minister and now the secretary of the Security Council.
The SSO said the signatures of the document owners were written in Korean, which it said “indicates the real origin of these soldiers.”
U.S., South Korean and Ukrainian officials have said there are currently up to 12,000 North Korean soldiers inside Russia, deployed there primarily to help push Kyiv’s forces out of positions taken in Kursk.
Ukrainian military sources told ABC News in November that North Koreans were expected to be among the 50,000 troops arrayed for a major counter-offensive in Kursk.
The deployment of troops marks a new milestone in North Korean support for Russia’s war, Pyongyang already having supplied Moscow with ammunition and weapons — including ballistic missiles — since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this month that Kyiv has “preliminary data that the Russians have begun to use North Korean soldiers in their assaults — a significant number of them.”
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Directorate of Intelligence, meanwhile, has reported “significant casualties” among North Korean troops deployed on the front lines alongside Russian units.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported on Monday that Seoul expects Pyongyang to send more troops and equipment to Russia.
“North Korea is preparing to rotate or increase the deployment of troops [in Russia], while currently supplying 240mm rocket launchers and 170mm self-propelled artillery,” said South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, as quoted by Yonhap.
“There are also some signs of [the North] moving to manufacture and supply suicide drones,” the JCS said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited a drone production and test facility in November. Then, the state-run Korean Central News Agency said Kim “underscored the need to build a serial production system as early as possible and go into full-scale mass production.”
(LONDON) — Russia is “very closely monitoring all the rhetoric” from Washington, a Kremlin spokesperson said, after President Donald Trump threatened to impose new sanctions unless Russia ends its war against Ukraine.
“We don’t see any new elements here,” Dimitry Peskov, the spokesperson, said on Thursday.
He added, “You know that in his first iteration of the presidency, Trump was the president of America who most often resorted to sanctions methods. He likes these methods. At least he liked them during his first presidency.”
The comments came the morning after Trump’s social media message to Russian President Donald Trump, calling on him to make a deal to “settle” Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“It’s time to ‘MAKE A DEAL.’ NO MORE LIVES SHOULD BE LOST!!!” Trump wrote in a new social media post.
Peskov on Thursday said financial actions against Russian assets held in the West would not go unanswered.
“We are very closely monitoring all the rhetoric, all the statements, we carefully record all the nuances,” he said.
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.
