Ukraine special forces claim over 100 North Koreans killed or wounded
ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images
(LONDON) — 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 Russia’s western Kursk region since August 2024.
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.”
(WASHINGTON) — Scientists and global leaders revealed on Tuesday that the “Doomsday Clock” has been reset to the closest humanity has ever come to self-annihilation.
For the first time in three years, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the metaphorical clock up one second to 89 seconds before midnight, the theoretical doomsday mark.
“It is the determination of the science and security board of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists that the world has not made sufficient progress on existential risks threatening all of humanity. We thus move the clock forward,” Daniel Holz, chair of the organization’s science and security board, said during a livestreamed unveiling of the clock’s ominous new time.
“In setting the clock closer to midnight, we send a stark signal,” Holz said. “Because the world is already perilously closer to the precipice, any move towards midnight should be taken as an indication of extreme danger and an unmistakable warning. Every second of delay in reversing course increases the probability of global disaster.”
For the last two years, the clock has stayed at 90 seconds to midnight, with scientists citing the ongoing war in Ukraine and an increase in the risk of nuclear escalation as the reason.
Among the reasons for moving the clock one second closer to midnight, Holz said, were the further increase in nuclear risk, climate change, biological threats, and advances in disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence.
“Meanwhile, arms control treaties are in tatters and there are active conflicts involving nuclear powers. The world’s attempt to deal with climate change remain inadequate as most governments fail to enact financing and policy initiatives necessary to halt global warming,” Holz said, noting that 2024 was the hottest year ever recorded on the planet.
“Advances in an array of disruptive technology, including biotechnology, artificial intelligence and in space have far outpaced policy, regulation and a thorough understanding of their consequences,” Holz said.
Holtz said all of the dangers that went into the organization’s decision to recalibrate the clock were exacerbated by what he described as a “potent threat multiplier”: The spread of misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories “that degrade the communication ecosystem and increasingly blur the line between truth and falsehood.”
What is the Doomsday Clock?
The Doomsday Clock was designed to be a graphic warning to the public about how close humanity has come to destroying the world with potentially dangerous technologies.
The clock was established in 1947 by Albert Einstein, Manhattan Project director J. Robert Oppenheimer, and University of Chicago scientists who helped develop the first atomic weapons as part of the Manhattan Project. Created less than two years after the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, during World War II, the clock was initially set at seven minutes before midnight.
Over the past seven decades, the clock has been adjusted forward and backward multiple times. The farthest the minute hand has been pushed back from the cataclysmic midnight hour was 17 minutes in 1991, after the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty was revived and then-President George H.W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev announced reductions in the nuclear arsenals of their respective countries.
For the past 77 years, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a nonprofit media organization comprised of world leaders and Nobel laureates, has announced how close it believes the world is to collapse due to nuclear war, climate change and, most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic.
(KHAN YOUNIS, GAZA) — The humanitarian crisis and ongoing conflict in Gaza has left in its wake thousands of people with life-altering disabilities.
The ongoing conflict between Hamas and Israel, coupled with Gaza’s crumbling health care infrastructure, has created what some describe as insurmountable challenges for those injured during the violence.
About 25% of the people who have sustained injuries in the conflict — an estimated 22,500 people — now require long-term rehabilitation, according to the World Health Organization. More than 106,000 people have been injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry.
But in Gaza, where medical resources are already stretched to the breaking point, even basic rehabilitation services remain out of reach.
Many disabled individuals face not only physical pain but also profound psychological scars and societal rejection in Gaza, international and local medical professionals said. With limited access to medical care, psychological support, and assistive devices, they are often left to navigate life with disabilities that forever alter their futures.
“In any circumstances, recovering from an extensive injury and attending physical rehabilitation takes an enormous amount of psychological strength. To do this in a conflict zone — where accessing mobility aids, appropriate transportation, or any at all, physiotherapy sessions, proper nutrition, and rest is very difficult — takes a severe toll on every individual experiencing it,” International Committee of the Red Cross spokesperson Hisham Mhanna told ABC News in an interview.
In the more than a year since Israel began its retaliatory war against Hamas, the terrorist group that attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostage, much of Gaza has been destroyed by airstrikes, according to the United Nations. Nearly 100 hostages remain missing in Gaza with about two-thirds believed to be alive.
About 60% of all buildings in Gaza have been destroyed, a U.N. agency said in September. The Strip’s hospital system has “collapsed,” a spokesperson for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, told ABC News in October. Nineteen of the 36 hospitals and nine field hospitals formerly operating in Gaza were still partially functioning, the WHO said at the time.
Ahmed Al Haw, 17, a displaced person living in Khan Younis, a city in southern Gaza, said he is among those whose lives have been irreversibly changed. Al Haw was injured in front of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis while visiting a sick relative. His family’s trip turned into a nightmare when a bomb exploded near their car.
“My grandfather’s leg was amputated, and as the injury developed, he passed away. My mother and sister were also injured. I lost my eye and part of my foot,” Al Haw said.
For Al Haw, the aftermath of the explosion has been almost as unbearable as the injuries themselves. He has been thrust into a reality where even the simplest tasks are a struggle. The physical pain is unrelenting, but it pales in comparison to the psychological toll he endures, he said.
“At the beginning of the injury, I was in a state of depression. I didn’t eat at all. One time, I even thought about committing suicide,” he said.
Gaza’s health care system lacks the resources to adequately address the needs of the disabled, the World Health Organization said in a recent press release announcing the publication of an analysis of the medical situation in Gaza. There is a lack of medical supplies, including prosthetics, wheelchairs and essential medications to treat people with injuries that have left them disabled, the press release said. Hospitals are overwhelmed, understaffed, and under-resourced.
“Accessing proper prosthetics and mobility aids is difficult in Gaza, where there are shortages of everything, including critical medical drugs and supplies. The focus of medical staff is on saving lives, as it must be in any emergency, but this leaves gaps in the post-recovery care in many areas.” Mhanna said.
Medical aid has accounted for about 2.5% by weight of all aid that’s been brought in Gaza since the conflict began about 14 months ago, according to the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories, the Israeli ministry overseeing the flow of food, medical aid and other supplies into Gaza. About 28,918 tons of medical aid have crossed into the Strip, according to COGAT data.
“Israel actively and continuously operates to facilitate the increase of the medical response in Gaza,” COGAT says on its website. “This is done in close coordination with humanitarian aid organizations specializing in health services, and donor countries.”
The most common injuries medical staff see are “loss of limbs” from bombings and shrapnel, said Dr. Sami Owaimer, director of the Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Unit at the Ministry of Health in Gaza.
“The most common injuries we see are the loss of limbs due to explosions and shrapnel, alongside eye injuries that lead to blindness and spinal injuries resulting in paralysis. These wounds often cause permanent deformities and profoundly alter lives,” Owaimer said.
Rehabilitation, a critical step in recovery, is virtually non-existent in Gaza. The region lacks specialized centers, modern equipment and trained professionals to provide comprehensive care. As a result, many disabled individuals are left without the tools or support needed to adapt to their new realities.
“There is a glaring lack of specialized rehabilitation centers and modern equipment, such as prosthetics and movement training devices,” Owaimer said. “Comprehensive programs that integrate physical, psychological and social services are desperately needed.”
For Al Haw, the psychological impact of his injuries is compounded by the stigma he faces from society, he said.
“Society does not accept me,” he said. “When I walk slowly on crutches, people start shouting at me, ‘Hurry up!’ One time, I fell to the ground. I cry every day. I have nightmares every night. I feel very lonely. I’ve become mentally ill in addition to being physically and visually disabled.”
The lack of psychological support exacerbates the suffering of those like Al Haw. Many patients, particularly young people, find themselves battling depression and anxiety with no professional guidance or emotional support.
“Adapting to life with a disability is a significant challenge,” Owaimer said. “While some programs offer psychological and social rehabilitation, the lack of resources limits their reach and effectiveness.”
The societal challenges faced by people with disabilities in Gaza, limited facilities, lack of accessibility and entrenched stigma leave many feeling isolated and marginalized. Al Haw described this isolation as being particularly painful. As the oldest of seven siblings, he said he feels a deep responsibility to support his family, especially with his father imprisoned in an Israeli jail.
“I’ve lost my feet and my sight, the most precious things I had. My dreams have deteriorated. I can’t support my mother and sisters. My future is completely unknown,” he said.
Despite the obstacles he faces, Al Haw keeps going, driven by his love for his family.
“Because of my family, I am struggling to continue living. I want to have a good future, to support my family in the absence of my father,” he said.
“These individuals are not just numbers — they are human beings with rights who deserve dignity, education, and proper rehabilitation,” Owaimer said.
“In the chaos of conflict, many people with disabilities are forgotten,” Mhanna, of the Red Cross, said. “But they are civilians and receive special protection under international humanitarian law. People with disabilities, and the different challenges and needs they have, must be taken into account by parties to a conflict during active hostilities.”
