After a battle in Russia's snowy western region of Kursk this week, Ukrainian special forces scoured the bodies of more than a dozen slain North Korean enemy soldiers, Reuters reported.

Among them, they found one still alive. But as they approached, he detonated a grenade, blowing himself up, according to a description of the fighting posted on social media by Ukraine's Special Operations Forces on Monday.

The forces said their soldiers escaped the blast uninjured. Reuters could not verify the incident.

But it is among mounting evidence from the battlefield, intelligence reports and testimonies of defectors that some North Korean soldiers are resorting to extreme measures as they support Russia's three-year war with Ukraine.

"Self-detonation and suicides: that's the reality about North Korea," said Kim, a 32-year-old former North Korean soldier who defected to the South in 2022, requesting he only be identified by his surname due to fears of reprisals against his family left in the North.

"These soldiers who left home for a fight there have been brainwashed and are truly ready to sacrifice themselves for Kim Jong Un," he added, referring to the reclusive North Korean leader.

Kim, introduced to Reuters by Seoul-based human rights group NK Imprisonment Victims' Family Association, said he had worked for North Korea's military in Russia for about seven years up until 2021 on construction projects to earn foreign currency for the regime.

Ukrainian and Western assessments say Pyongyang has deployed some 11,000 soldiers to support Moscow's forces in Russia's western Kursk region, which Ukraine seized in a surprise incursion last year. More than 3,000 have been killed or injured, according to Kyiv.

North Korea's mission to the United Nations in Geneva did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Moscow and Pyongyang initially dismissed reports about the North's troop deployment as "fake news". But Russian president Vladimir Putin in October did not deny that North Korean soldiers were currently in Russia and a North Korean official said any such deployment would be lawful, read the report.

Ukraine this week released videos of what it said were two captured North Korean soldiers. One of the soldiers expressed a desire to stay in Ukraine, and the other to return to North Korea, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.

North Korea's deployment to Russia is its first major involvement in a war since the 1950-53 Korean War. North Korea reportedly sent a much smaller contingent to the Vietnam War and to the civil conflict in Syria.

The United States has warned the experience in Russia will make North Korea "more capable of waging war against its neighbours".

North Korea's leader Kim has previously hailed his army as "the strongest in the world", according to state media. Propaganda videos released by the regime in 2023 showed bare-chested soldiers running across snowy fields, jumping into frozen lakes and punching blocks of ice for winter training.

But a South Korean lawmaker briefed by the country's spy agency on Monday said that the numbers of North Korean soldiers wounded and killed on the battlefield suggests they are unprepared for modern warfare, such as drone attacks, and may be being used as "cannon fodder" by Russia, Reuters reported.

More worryingly there are signs these troops have been instructed to commit suicide, he said.

"Recently, it has been confirmed that a North Korean soldier was in danger of being captured by the Ukrainian military, so he shouted for General Kim Jong Un and pulled out a grenade to try to blow himself up, but was killed," Lee Seong-kweun, who sits on the South Korean parliament's intelligence committee, said.

Memos carried by slain North Korean soldiers also show that North Korean authorities emphasized self-destruction and suicide before capture, he added.

When asked about further details of the cases he referred to, he declined to elaborate saying it was information from Ukraine shared with South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS). NIS did not answer calls seeking comment on Tuesday.

Suicides by soldiers or spies not only show loyalty to the Kim Jong Un regime but are also a way to protect their families left at home, Yang Uk, a defence analyst at the Asan Institute of Policy Studies said.

Ukraine's Zelenskiy said on Sunday Kyiv is ready to hand over captured North Korean soldiers to their leader Kim Jong Un if he can facilitate their exchange for Ukrainians held captive in Russia.

For some North Korean soldiers, however, being captured and sent back to Pyongyang would be seen as a fate worse than death, said Kim, the North Korean defector and former soldier.

"Becoming a prisoner of war means treason. Being captured means you are a traitor. Leave one last bullet, that's what we are talking about in the military," he said.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Monday he is going to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin "very quickly" after he takes office next week, Reuters reported

He did not provide a timeline for the meeting, which would be the first between the leaders of the two countries since Russia's war with Ukraine started in February 2022.

When asked about his strategy to end the war, Trump told Newsmax: "Well, there's only one strategy and it's up to Putin and I can't imagine he's too thrilled about the way it's gone because it hasn't gone exactly well for him either.

"And I know he wants to meet and I'm going to meet very quickly. I would've done it sooner but...you have to get into the office. For some of the things, you do have to be there."

U.S. Congressman Mike Waltz, the incoming national security adviser, said on Sunday he expected a call between Trump and Putin in "the coming days and weeks."

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has left tens of thousands of people dead, displaced millions and triggered the biggest rupture in relations between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Firefighters raced to contain the frontiers of two Los Angeles wildfires that burned for the sixth straight day on Sunday, taking advantage of a brief respite in hazardous conditions before high winds were expected to fan the flames anew, Reuters reported.

At least 24 people have died in what California Governor Gavin Newsom said could be the most devastating natural disaster in U.S. history, one that has destroyed thousands of homes and forced 100,000 people to evacuate.

Flames have reduced whole neighborhoods to smoldering ruins, leveling the homes of the rich and famous and ordinary folk alike, and leaving an apocalyptic landscape. Officials said 12,300 structures have been damaged or destroyed.

"L.A. County had another night of unimaginable terror and heartbreak," Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said.

Aerial firefighters, some of them scooping water out of the Pacific Ocean, dropped water and retardant while land crews with hand tools and hoses held the line of the Palisades Fire as it encroached on the upscale Brentwood section and other populated areas of Los Angeles.

That fire on the western side of town has consumed 23,713 acres (96 sq km) or 37 square miles and stood at 11% contained, a figure representing the percentage of the fire's perimeter that firefighters have under control, read the report.

The Eaton Fire in the foothills east of Los Angeles scorched another 14,117 acres (57 sq km) or 22 square miles - itself nearly the size of Manhattan - and firefighters increased the containment to 27%, up from 15% a day earlier.

North of the city, the Hurst Fire was 89% contained, and three other fires that had ravaged other parts of the county were now 100% contained, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) reported, though areas within the containment lines may still be burning.

Firefighters got a temporary break from the weather this weekend as Santa Ana winds, which reached hurricane force earlier in the week, finally eased. The dry winds originating from the inland deserts had fanned flames and blew embers up to 2 miles (3 km) ahead of the front lines.

But, in an area that has not received any rain of note since April, the National Weather Service forecast Santa Ana winds of up to 50 to 70 miles per hour (80 to 112 kph) would resume on Sunday night and last through Wednesday.

Officials warned the entire Los Angeles County population of nearly 10 million that anyone may be ordered to evacuate from the flames and toxic smoke, Reuters reported.

By Sunday, more than 100,000 people in Los Angeles County had been ordered to evacuate - down from a previous high of more than 150,000 - while another 87,000 faced evacuation warnings.

"These winds combined with low relative humidities and low fuel moistures will keep the fire threat in all of Los Angeles County very high," Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone told a press conference, adding that evacuated areas may not be reopened until red flag conditions are lifted on Thursday.

Even so, schools except some in mandatory evacuation zones would reopen on Monday, after closing for all 429,000 students in the Los Angeles Unified School District on Thursday and Friday, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho announced.

Newsom told NBC News the fires were likely to be the worst natural disaster in U.S. history "in terms of just the costs associated with it." The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner reported 24 deaths from the fires.

Private forecaster AccuWeather has estimated the damage and economic loss at $135 billion to $150 billion.

To help expedite the monumental rebuilding effort ahead, Newsom signed an executive order on Sunday temporarily suspending environmental regulations for destroyed homes and businesses.

Active duty military personnel are ready to support the firefighting effort, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said in a series of Sunday television interviews, adding the agency has urged residents to begin filing for disaster relief.

Firefighters from seven states, Canada and Mexico have already converged on the Los Angeles area to help fire departments from around the state.

In Altadena on the edge of the Eaton Fire, Tristin Perez said he never left his home, defying police orders to evacuate as the fire raced down the hillside.

Instead, Perez insisted on trying to save his property and his neighbors' homes.

"Your front yard is on fire, palm trees lit up – it looked like something out of a movie," Perez told Reuters in an interview in his driveway. "I did everything I could to stop the line and save my house, help save their houses."

His one-story yellow duplex survived. So did two more homes next door. Across the street, entire houses burned to the ground.

"A lot of these areas still look like they were hit by a bomb. There are live electrical wires, gas lines and other hazards," said Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna.

Zuzana Korda was evacuated from her home in the Fernwood neighborhood in Topanga, northwest of Los Angeles. Speaking outside a temporary assistance office at the West Hollywood Public Library, she said her landlord told her the family home was still standing, but she was anxious.

"We've left everything behind. We have no insurance," Korda said. "We stand to lose everything."