SEOUL -- A former sergeant in the North Korean military says that few of Pyongyang's soldiers have been captured fighting against Ukraine because they're told their families will be executed if they are caught alive.

North Korea recently sent some 3,500 additional soldiers to Russia's Far East for field training, a South Korean lawmaker said Wednesday, with the possibility of soon being dispatched to the front lines.

North Korea is no exception. Reports indicate that Kim Jong-un's soldiers, sent to fight alongside Russia, are learning how to use drones and improve battlefield tactics. This could have serious consequences for the region.

North Korea has stopped tourists from visiting, just weeks after the first Western tourists entered the country for the first time in five years. North Korea sealed itself off at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020, and started to scale back restrictions in the middle of 2023.

North Korean officials have suspended foreign tourism visits to the insular nation about a month after lifting restrictions for Western tourists, but did not say why the change was made.

North Korea has once again closed its borders, suspending foreign tourism just weeks after the secretive state welcomed its first Western visitors in five years.