United States President Joe Biden on Monday slammed North Korea's move of sending its troops to Russia, calling the development "very dangerous". His remark came as the Pentagon said that the US will not impose new limits on Ukraine's use of American weapons if North Korea enters the fight.
Earlier today, the NATO had said that the North Korean military units had been deployed to Russia's Kursk region. The Pentagon had estimated that around 10,000 North Korean troops had been deployed to eastern Russia for training, which was up from an estimated 3,000 troops as of last Wednesday, news agency Reuters reported.
The North Korea deployment is raising Western concerns that the conflict in Ukraine, which has been ongoing for the last 2.5 years, could widen, even as tensions continue in the Middle East.
"The deepening military cooperation between Russia and North Korea is a threat to both Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic security," NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said following talks with a South Korean delegation regarding the North Korean deployments.
Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh had said: "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".
On Thursday, Ukrainian military intelligence said that the first North Korean units had been recorded in the border region of Kursk, where Ukrainian troops have been operating since it staged a major incursion in August, the report noted.
However, the Pentagon declined to confirm that North Korean forces were already in Kursk. "It is likely that they are moving in that direction towards Kursk. But I don't have more details just yet," Singh said.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha stated that Kyiv had been warning about the North Koream troops deployment for weeks, and accused allies for not delivering a strong response. "The bottom line: listen to Ukraine. The solution: lift restrictions on our long-range strikes against Russia now," he said in a post on X.
Initially, the Kremlin dismissed reports about a North Korean deployment, calling it as "fake news". However, on Thursday, Putin did not deny the presence of North Korean troops in Russia and said that it was Moscow's business to decide how a partnership treaty will be implemented with Pyongyang.
NATO's Rutte had called the deployment of North Korean troops in Russia a sign of "growing desperation" on Putin's part. "Over 600,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded in Putin’s war and he is unable to sustain his assault on Ukraine without foreign support," Rutte said.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian president's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, stated that sanctions alone were't enough to respond to North Korean involvement, adding that Kyiv needed "weapons and a clear plan to prevent North Korea's expanded involvement". "The enemy understands strength. Our allies have this strength," Yermak said on X.