Pentagon says North Korea sent 10,000 troops to join Russia's war in Ukraine | Russia-Ukraine war News

The US is increasing the number of North Korean troops sent to Russia amid fears that Moscow's war with Ukraine could escalate.

An estimated 10,000 North Korean troops have been sent to Russia to train and fight in Ukraine “in the next few weeks”, the Pentagon announced, significantly increasing the number of troops deployed by North Korea and raising fears that the war in Ukraine could escalate. due to Pyongyang's military intervention.

Another 10,000 North Korean troops deployed to eastern Russia for training — up from an estimated 3,000 U.S. troops last week — are nearing the border with Ukraine, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said Monday.

“Part of those troops are already close to Ukraine, and we are increasingly concerned that Russia intends to use these troops in the war or to support the fight against Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk Oblast near the border with Ukraine,” Singh told reporters.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said North Korea's military deployment threatened the security of his country and the international community, and on Tuesday criticized what he described as “illegal” military cooperation between Russia and North Korea.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said earlier on Monday that North Korea's deployment represented a “significant escalation” in the conflict in Ukraine and was a “dangerous escalation of Russia's war”.

“Deep military cooperation between Russia and North Korea is dangerous both for Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic security,” Rutte told reporters after talks with a South Korean delegation about North Korea's deployment.

The official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of North Korea did not confirm the media reports about sending troops to Russia but said that if Pyongyang has taken this step, we believe that it will be in line with international standards.

'Fake news'

Moscow initially dismissed reports of North Korea's involvement in its war with Ukraine as “fake news”. But Russian President Vladimir Putin did not deny that North Korean troops are Russian and said it was an internal matter of how to implement any cooperation agreement with Pyongyang.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed Rutte's comments on Monday and noted that Pyongyang and Moscow signed a joint security agreement last June.

Lavrov also said that Western military instructors have been secretly sent to Ukraine to help its soldiers use long-range weapons provided by Western allies.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with their South Korean counterparts later this week in Washington, DC to discuss North Korea's involvement in Ukraine.

“When we see DPRK soldiers coming in facing forward, they are united in battle,” Singh said, using an acronym for the country's official name – the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. He mentioned that “there will be no restrictions on the use of weapons provided by the US to those forces”.

“This is the number that North Korea has to do,” Singh said.

South Korean news agency Yonhap said President Yoon told a cabinet meeting that the country must “carefully assess all possibilities and prepare ways to deal with them”, amid North Korea's military cooperation with Russia.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Kyiv had been warning about North Korea's deployment for weeks and accused the allies of failing to deliver a strong response.

“The bottom line: listen to Ukraine. Solution: remove restrictions on our long-range strikes against Russia now,” he said on social media.

The US, however, gave no indication that it would allow Ukraine's request to use its weapons to attack inside Russia.