US says North Korea has sent 10,000 troops to Russia

North Korea has sent about 10,000 troops to Russia for training, some of whom are already moving toward the front lines near the Ukrainian border, the Pentagon warned Monday.

“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” region, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters.

The confirmation comes hours after NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said North Korean troops were moving toward Russia’s Kursk region, which thousands of Ukrainian forces entered in August and where they continue to hold significant ground as Russian forces struggle to dislodge them.

The Pentagon’s figure is markedly higher than previous reports on North Korean troops entering the fight. Last week, the White House said it believed about 3,000 North Korean troops had arrived in Russia.

The entry of North Korean forces into the mix adds a new element of uncertainty to the conflict since for the first time troops from outside of Russia and Ukraine could join in the fighting, raising new questions over the wider global impact of the almost 3-year-old war.

Russia has increasingly relied on North Korea to supply artillery shells and missiles as the war has gone on and Russian stockpiles have been thinned by the overwhelming use of munitions along the front lines. The entry of North Korean troops takes that relationship a step further and raises concerns over Moscow transferring its own military know-how — including nuclear weapon components or industrial help — to the Kim regime in Pyongyang.

In a post on Facebook, Ukraine Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said “Ukraine has warned that Russia is preparing to deploy North Korean units,” for weeks, but “we did not see a decisive answer. It has now been confirmed by the NATO Secretary General. Conclusion: listen to Ukraine.”

The fighting in Kursk has been a huge embarrassment for Putin, whose forces have been unable to mobilize in significant numbers to push the Ukrainians out. Putin has refused to pull his troops off the front lines in Ukraine to help in Kursk, and the new North Korean deployment suggests this might be the solution.

Russian forces in eastern Ukraine are steadily taking ground from Ukrainian forces, sparking worries that Ukrainian forces have lost the momentum on the battlefield. But the Russian troops there also continue to take enormous losses.

The Biden administration has said it expects the Ukrainians to fight whatever forces they encounter on the front line. Singh underscored comments last week from National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby that the North Koreans are “fair game” if they engage in combat, adding that the Ukrainians will be able to use U.S.-supplied weapons to fight them off.

“If we see DPRK troops moving in towards the front lines, they are co-belligerents in the war,” Singh said, “this is a calculation that North Korea has to make.”

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will host his South Korean counterpart, Kim Yong Un, at the Pentagon on Wednesday ahead of a larger meeting of diplomats from the two countries on Thursday in Washington, where the North Korean deployments will be a topic of discussion.

Veronika Melkozerova contributed to this report.