The Pentagon says North Korea has sent about 10,000 troops to train in Russia. “We believe the DPRK has sent about 10,000 soldiers to train in eastern Russia,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters on Monday, referring to the initials of North Korea’s official name.
“Some of the soldiers have already moved closer to Ukraine, and we are increasingly concerned that Russia intends to use them in combat or to support combat operations against Ukrainian forces in the Russian region of Kursk, near the border with Ukraine,” she added.
Earlier, NATO confirmed that North Korean troops had been sent to Russia to help Moscow in its fight against Ukraine and that some of them had been deployed in Russia’s Kursk region, where Kiev’s forces launched a surprise attack in August and still hold some of the territory.
“Deepening military cooperation between Russia and North Korea poses a threat to the security of the Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic,” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte told reporters in Brussels after NATO officials and diplomats were briefed by a South Korean intelligence delegation as well as military officials.
Rutte said the deployment of 3,000 North Korean troops represented” a significant escalation “of Pyongyang’s engagement in” Russia’s illegitimate war “in Ukraine, a violation of U. N. Security Council resolutions and a” dangerous expansion ” of the war.
NATO’s secretary-general said the deployment of North Korean troops was a sign of “growing desperation” on the part of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Over 600,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded in Putin’s war, and he is unable to withstand aggression against Ukraine without foreign support,” Rutte said.
The Pentagon did not provide further details on the troops or equipment North Korea has sent along with the troops. When asked by VOA what capabilities the troops have, Ms Singh said they were “additional forces on the battlefield”.
“If we see DPRK troops moving to and towards the front line, they are comrades in the war,” she warned.
The Kremlin had dismissed reports of North Korean troops as”fake news”. But Putin did not deny last week that North Korean troops were currently in Russia and said it was up to Moscow to decide how to deploy them as part of a mutual defense security pact he signed with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in June.
Contrary to the Russian President’s comments, a North Korean representative at the United Nations in New York last week characterized reports of Pyongyang’s troop deployment in Russia as “baseless rumors”.
Drone strikes
On the battle front, Ukraine’s military said on Monday that Russian forces attacked overnight with 100 drones targeting areas across the country.
The Ukrainian Air Force said it shot down 66 drones, most over the Cherkasy, Khmelnytskyi and Kiev regions. Ukraine’s air defense also shot down drones over Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Rivne, Ternopil and Zhytomyr.
Kherson governor Oleksandr Prokudin said in Telegram that Russian attacks hit residential buildings in the city of Kherson, killing at least two people.
In Kharkiv, officials reported attacks with Russian bombs and grenades, including attacks that damaged an apartment building and a house.
Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram that at least 13 people were injured in the attacks on three neighborhoods of the city.
Russia’s Defense Ministry announced on Monday that it destroyed 21 Ukrainian drones. The ministry said Russian air defenses destroyed 13 drones over the Belgorod region, six over Byransk, one over Voronezh and one over Kursk. Voronezh governor Alexander Gusev said the drones damaged two businesses and injured two people.
