North Korean general wounded in Ukrainian strike

A high-ranking general has become the first senior North Korean military figure to be wounded fighting for Russia against Ukraine, Western officials have said.
The general was said to have been injured in a Ukrainian missile strike on the Russian border region of Kursk, where thousands of Pyongyang’s troops have been deployed to help repel Ukraine’s offensive launched in August.
The official, speaking to the Wall Street Journal, did not disclose his identity or how exactly he was wounded.
Ukraine launched at least 10 British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles at a military facility in Kursk on Wednesday.
The target was a former country estate, the cellars of which were being used by the Russian military as a command centre, where senior North Korean officials may have been stationed.
Washington has accused North Korea of sending more than 10,000 troops to Russia and last month warned they would be a legitimate military target by Ukrainian forces.
In exchange for the troops and a steady stream of artillery shells, Vladimir Putin is said to have given Kim Jong-un a million barrels of oil as well as anti-air missiles.
Satellite imagery, shared by the Britain-based Open Source Centre with the BBC, appeared to prove that the Kremlin is breaking international sanctions sending huge quantities of oil to North Korea.
On Friday, Shin Won-sik, Seoul’s security chief said: “It has been identified that equipment and anti-aircraft missiles aimed at reinforcing Pyongyang’s vulnerable air defence system have been delivered to North Korea.”
Following the news of the wounded North Korean general, Kim accused the US of increasing tension, saying the Korean peninsula has never faced a greater risk of nuclear war.
In a speech at a military exhibition in Pyongyang, the dictator criticised Washington for its “unchangeable aggressive and hostile” policy towards North Korea.
“Never before have the warring parties on the Korean peninsula faced such a dangerous and acute confrontation that it could escalate into the most destructive thermonuclear war,” he said, according to the KCNA state news agency.
Kim also hinted that he would be reluctant to sit down with Donald Trump, despite the president-elect previously touting the pair’s close ties.
“We have already gone as far as we can on negotiating with the United States,” he said, adding that North Korea’s only guarantee of security was to bolster its nuclear-armed military.
Kim was speaking at a defence exhibition in Pyongyang, where he showed off a range of strategic and tactical weapons including supposed intercontinental ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles and drones.
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The Hungarian prime minister has warned Western states to take Putin’s threats at face value. 
Viktor Orban emphasised that those countries supplying weapons to Ukraine should be cautious and “act with common sense” or else “problems may arise”, according to Tass news agency. 
“If the Russian president says something in his country, it is not just empty noise. It is not a communication tactic,” Orban told Kossuth public-broadcasting radio station. 
He added that when Russia “changes the rules of engagement of nuclear weapons, it is not a communication ploy, it is not a trick, and it will have consequences.” 
Orban previously said in a video posted to social media that the next two months would be the most dangerous of the war in Ukraine. 
Boris Pistorius has ruled himself out as the next leader of Germany’s Social Democrats [SPD], clearing the path for Chancellor Olaf Scholz to take the embattled party into snap elections.
In a major blow to some figures in the SPD who wished to oust Mr Scholz, Mr Pistorius announced that he was not “available” to run for the party leadership ahead of elections in February 2025.
“This is my sovereign, personal decision and only my decision. I have emphasised this over and over in recent weeks and I’m saying it again as clearly as possible: In Olaf Scholz, we have an excellent chancellor,” he said.
His announcement means Mr Scholz is all but guaranteed to run in the elections as SPD leader. 
The move is significant in the context of Russia and the war in Ukraine: Mr Pistorius has proven to be a more hawkish ally of Kyiv than Mr Scholz, who spent much of his tenure resisting calls to provide it with more powerful weaponry, such as Taurus missiles. 
Mr Pistorius has also been an advocate of making Germany “war-ready” through a major rise in defence spending and the reintroduction of conscription in Germany. 
A German foreign ministry spokesperson has described Ukraine’s decision to use antipersonnel mines as “regrettable”. 
“It is regrettable that Ukraine feels compelled to take such steps as this war continues,” the spokesperson said.
Joe Biden agreed to send antipersonnel land mines to Ukraine this week in a bid to hinder the advance of Russian forces.  
Germany and Ukraine are signatories to the Ottawa Convention banning the use or transfer of anti-personnel landmines, while the United States is not. 
The experimental Russian mid-range ballistic missile that struck the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday reached a top speed beyond Mach 11, Kyiv’s top spy agency said. 
A speed of Mach 11, which is more than 13,500km/h, would classify the new missile as faster than hypersonic, which ranges from 5 to 10 Mach, reaching the high-hypersonic qualification. 
“The flight time of this Russian missile from the moment of its launch in the Astrakhan region to its impact in the city of Dnipro was 15 minutes,” the Main Directorate of Intelligence said in a statement, adding that the weapon was likely from the ‘Kedr’ missile complex.
“The missile was equipped with six warheads: Each equipped with six submunitions. The speed at the final part of the trajectory was over Mach 11.” 
The North Korean dictator has accused the United States of ramping up tension, saying the Korean peninsula has never faced a greater risk of nuclear war.
Kim Jong-un, in a speech at a military exhibition in Pyongyang, criticised Washington for its “unchangeable aggressive and hostile” policy towards North Korea.
“Never before have the warring parties on the Korean peninsula faced such a dangerous and acute confrontation that it could escalate into the most destructive thermonuclear war,” he said, as quoted by the KCNA state news agency.
“We have already gone as far as we can on negotiating with the United States,” he said, adding that North Korea’s only guarantee of security was to bolster its nuclear-armed military.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has stated that Russia needs migrants to prop up its dwindling domestic workforce. 
“Migrants are essential,” he told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, adding that Russia’s population was relatively small in comparison to its land mass.
“That’s why Russia welcomes migrants. To ensure dynamic development and achieve our growth plans, we clearly need a strong workforce, and we fully support their arrival”, he said. 
Peskov noted that while Russia was not fond of migrants, there is a “practical necessity” for workers as “someone has to weld the pipes”.  
In July, the Kremlin acknowledged the low population was “disastrous for the future of the nation” as Russian media said the country was recording the lowest number of births since the 1990s. 
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has described Russia’s use of an experimental hypersonic missile to hit Ukraine as a “terrible escalation” in the war. 
In a speech on Friday, Mr Scholz said the deployment of the new weapon showed “how dangerous this war is”. 
He said: “That Putin has now also used a medium-range missile to strike Ukrainian territory is a terrible escalation.”
Nato and Ukraine will hold talks next week in Brussels over Russia’s firing of an experimental hypersonic intermediate-range missile.
Ambassadors from countries in the Nato-Ukraine Council will meet on Tuesday to discuss the strike on the city of Dnipro.
A spokeswoman for Nato said: “Deploying this capability will neither change the course of the conflict nor deter Nato allies from supporting Ukraine.”
A Russian attack on the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy killed two people and injured 12 on Friday morning, local authorities said.
Drones hit 12 apartment buildings, five private residences, a store and three cars at around 5am, according to the national police.
The head of the Sumy region, Volodymyr Artyukh, said Russia had deployed a drone with modified munitions that were “equipped with shrapnel”, describing the weapons as being “used to kill people, not to destroy buildings”.
It comes after a missile attack on Sunday killed 11 and injured 89 people.
The Verkhovna Rada has cancelled its scheduled sessions today amid warnings of a potential Russian-strike on Kyiv’s central government buildings. 
Members of parliament were notified about the threat and urged to stay away from the area, according to newspaper Ukrainska Pravda. 
China has called for “calm” and “restraint” from all parties in the Ukraine war after Russia fired an experimental “hypersonic” ballistic missile on Thursday. 
“All parties should remain calm and exercise restraint, work to de-escalate the situation through dialogue and consultation, and create conditions for an early ceasefire,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a regular briefing.
Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov said Moscow’s advance had “accelerated” in Ukraine and “ground down” Kyiv’s best units.
In a meeting with military commanders, Belousov said Russian forces had “derailed the entire 2025 campaign” of the Ukrainian army.
“We have, in fact, derailed the entire 2025 campaign,” Belousov said of the Ukrainian army, speaking in a video published by the Russian defence ministry.
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