By Diyar Guldogan
WASHINGTON (AA) - North Korea sent around 10,000 troops to eastern Russia and to fight in Ukraine within "the next several weeks," the Pentagon said Monday.
"We have seen reports from over the weekend indicating that DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) soldiers have started arriving in western Russia.
"We believe that the 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.
A portion of the North Korean soldiers have already moved closer to Ukraine, Singh added, stressing that the US is "increasingly concerned” that Russia intends to use these soldiers in combat or to support combat operations against Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk region near the border with Ukraine.
She declined to confirm that North Korean forces were already in Kursk, saying "it is likely that they are moving in that direction towards Kursk. But I don't have more details just yet."
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte confirmed earlier Monday that some North Korean troops were already in the Kursk region, calling it a "dangerous expansion" of the conflict.
Rutte said the deployment of North Korean troops to Kursk is a sign of Russian President Vladimir Putin's "growing desperation." He also called on Russia and North Korea to cease these actions immediately.