US says 10,000 North Korean troops thought to be in Russia
North Korea has sent the troops to train in Russia with the expectation they’ll be sent to fight in Ukraine within “the next several weeks,” the Pentagon said Monday.
“We believe that the [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)] has sent around 10,000 soldiers in total to train in eastern Russia that will probably augment Russian forces near Ukraine over the next several weeks,” deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters.
Singh said a portion of the North Korean soldiers have already moved closer to Ukraine, and U.S. officials believe they are heading to the Kursk border region in Russia, where Ukrainian troops this summer launched an incursion that Kremlin forces have struggled to push back.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte earlier Monday confirmed some North Korean military units were already in the Kursk region — calling it a “dangerous expansion” of the conflict — but he did not say how many troops were there.
Speaking after South Korean intelligence and military officials visited NATO headquarters in Brussels, Rutte said Pyongyang’s shipment of ammunition and ballistic missiles to Russia is “fueling a major conflict in the heart of Europe.” He also called the deepening military cooperation between Russia and North Korea “a threat to both the Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic security.”
Why it matters:
The new U.S. estimate of 10,000 troops comes after Washington last week confirmed at least 3,000 North Korean soldiers were undergoing military training at multiple sites in Russia. That disclosure followed similar intel reports from Kyiv and Seoul.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday said Moscow plans to deploy North Koreans on the battlefield within days.
The deployment means North Korean troops soon could be in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, adding to Europe’s biggest war since World War II.
The development is also sure to exacerbate tensions with the West, in the Korean Peninsula and the wider Indo-Pacific region.
Singh said should North Korean troops show up on the front lines, there will be no limitations on the use of U.S.-provided weapons on those forces.
“If we see DPRK troops moving in and towards the front lines, they are co-belligerents in the war,” Singh said. “This is a calculation that North Korea has to make.”
Read the full report at TheHill.com.
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Jana Carter is a news writer and editor at Pax Press Agency. She's also a tech enthusiast, an avid reader, and an artist in her free time.
She loves to write about everything from sports to art to politics—and she always strives to make her writing fun, accessible, and informative.
