Some of the 10,000 North Korean soldiers deployed to eastern Russia for training –up from an initial US estimate of 3,000 last week– have moved closer to the Ukrainian border, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said on Monday, Al Jazeera reported.
“A portion of those soldiers have already moved closer to Ukraine, and we are increasingly concerned that Russia intends to use these soldiers in combat or to support combat operations against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk Oblast near the border with Ukraine,” Singh told reporters.
South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol said the North Korean military deployment threatened both his country’s national security and the international community, denouncing on Tuesday what he described as “illegal” military cooperation between Russia and North Korea.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said earlier on Monday that the North Korean deployment represents “a significant escalation” in the Ukraine conflict.
A North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs official did not confirm media reports about a troop deployment to Russia but said if Pyongyang had taken such action, he believed it would be in line with international norms.
Moscow initially dismissed reports about North Korean involvement in its war on Ukraine as “fake news”. But President Vladimir Putin has not denied that North Korean troops are in Russia and said it was an internal matter of how he implemented any partnership treaty with Pyongyang.
Russia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov shrugged off Rutte’s comments on Monday and noted that Pyongyang and Moscow signed a joint security pact last June.