North Korea has sent about 10,000 troops to Russia to likely fight against Ukraine, Pentagon says
Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh says North Korea has sent about 10,000 troops to Russia to train and likely fight against Ukraine within “the next several weeks.”
BRUSSELS (AP) — North Korea has sent about 10,000 troops to Russia to train and likely fight against Ukraine within “the next several weeks,” the Pentagon said Monday, in a move that Western leaders say will intensify the almost three-year war and jolt relations in the Indo-Pacific region.
Some of the North Korean soldiers have already moved closer to Ukraine, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said, and were believed to be heading for the Kursk border region, where Russia has been struggling to push back a Ukrainian incursion.
Earlier Monday, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte NATO confirmed recent Ukrainian intelligence reports that some North Korean military units were already in the Kursk region.
Adding thousands of North Korean soldiers to Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II will pile more pressure on Ukraine’s weary and overstretched army. It will also stoke geopolitical tensions in the Korean Peninsula and the wider Indo-Pacific region, including Japan and Australia, Western officials say.
