The Pentagon says North Korea has sent 10,000 troops to Russia, some of them moving to the front lines, a move that has serious implications for the conflict and the rest of the European continent.

“We believe North Korea is sending a total of approximately 10,000 troops to train in eastern Russia, which will likely increase Russian forces near Ukraine over the next few weeks,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters Monday, using the acronym for repressive authoritarian state. he said.

The news comes in a few days South Korean officials told US lawmakers The Minister of Defense said that 3000 North Korean soldiers are on their way to Ukraine. Lloyd Austin told reporters “We are seeing evidence of North Korean troops” traveling to Russia during the Rome visit but not offering a total.

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Pentagon’s assessment by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte He also issued a statement It confirmed the presence of North Korean troops in the war, which started with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Rutte said the move was not only a “significant escalation in North Korea’s continued participation in Russia’s illegal war” but also violated United Nations security resolutions and represented a “dangerous expansion of Russia’s war.”

The relationship between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has been deepening over the past year. The North Koreans had supplied Russia with millions of bullets and ballistic missiles before any North Korean soldiers had ever set foot on Russian soil.

Russia is offering North Korea “military technology and other support to circumvent international sanctions” in exchange for troops that will help Putin compensate for the more than half a million Russian dead or wounded it has endured since the start of the conflict, according to the NATO chief.

“Putin has failed to achieve his strategic goals, and at the end of the day, it shows… the Secretary uses this phrase… he’s ‘tin-mongering’ North Korea, Iran, because he failed to achieve those goals.” Battlefield targets,” Singh said, referring to Defense Secretary Austin.

The Pentagon believes most of the 10,000 troops will train in eastern Russia, Singh told reporters, but some have already approached Ukraine and officials are “increasingly concerned that Russia intends to use these troops in combat or support combat operations against Russia.” ” he said. “Ukrainian forces are in Russia’s Kursk Oblast, near the Ukrainian border.”

Russia’s Kursk region was occupied by Ukrainian forces in August, and they have retained varying amounts of territory since then. While the seizure of Russian territory was seen as a major, if surprising, tactical victory for Ukrainians, it also raised questions about what role, if any, it had in the broader military strategy, other than embarrassing Putin.

Ukrainian officials have argued that the aim is to create a buffer zone between themselves and Russian forces, and Singh told reporters that Austin had been told they intended to hold the area as late as this weekend. But Austin warned his Ukrainian counterparts that “there is still a significant fight going on in the east,” referring to the disputed regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

While reiterating NATO’s concern that adding large amounts of North Korean troops to the conflict would have “broad implications for European and Indo-Pacific security,” Singh said the United States would not pressure the Ukrainians to treat them differently. North Korean troops are “joint combatants.”

“This is a calculation that North Korea has to make; they’re sending their troops into a war where we’re seeing Russian casualties and casualties in excess of 500,000 at this point,” he said.

“If they are at war… they are fighting Ukrainians who are fighting for their sovereign territory and we have made a commitment to Ukraine that we will continue to support them at all costs,” Singh said. he said. in question.

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