SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Tuesday its top diplomat is visiting Russia, in another sign of their deepening ties as rival South Korea and Western countries say the North has sent thousands of troops to counter Russia’s support war in Ukraine.

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said a delegation led by Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui left for Russia on Monday, but did not specify the purpose of the visit. At a closed-door hearing in South Korea’s parliament, South Korea’s spy agency said Choe may be involved in high-level discussions about sending additional troops to Russia and negotiating what the North would get in return, according to reports Lee Seong-kweun, a member of parliament. who attended the meeting.

The announcement of Choe’s visit came hours after the Pentagon said North Korea had sent a message to Russia about 10,000 troopswho will likely fight Ukraine within “the next few weeks.”

South Korean and Western leaders have expressed concern that North Korean involvement could help prolong Russian aggression in Ukraine, and that in return Russia could offer technology that could counter the threat of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and rocket program could increase.

Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said a “relatively small number” of North Korean troops are now in the Kursk region, where Russia struggled to push back a Ukrainian invasion. He did not want to give a more precise number. A few thousand more troops are heading that way, he told reporters on Tuesday.

“As of now, it remains to be seen exactly how the Russians and the North Koreans will deploy these forces,” Ryder said, adding that he expects the deployment will be discussed by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony. Blinken and their South Korean counterparts when they meet in Washington this week.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told lawmakers it is investigating the possibility that some groups of North Korea’s military personnel in Russia, including generals and other senior officials, may have already moved to frontline areas. The spy agency said the two sides appear to be struggling to resolve communications issues, even though the Russian military is training North Korean troops in Russian military terminology, Lee said.

According to the agency, space exploration is an area where North Korea is likely to receive Russian help. It said North Korea may acquire advanced components from Russia as it prepares to launch a new military reconnaissance satellite after a failed attempt in Maysaid Park Sun-won, another lawmaker who attended the hearing.

North Korea placed a spy satellite in orbit for the first time last November. Leader Kim Jong Un has described these assets as crucial for monitoring South Korea’s and the US’s military activities and increasing the threat from its nuclear missiles.

In a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said deepening military cooperation between North Korea and Russia could pose a “major security threat” to Seoul if the North gains access to Russian technology and his troops gain combat experience.

The leaders confirmed plans to exchange government delegations as part of efforts to strengthen communications and coordinate their responses to the conflict, Yoon’s office said.

In previous conversations with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Yoon called for closer coordination with European governments aimed at “monitoring and blocking illegal exchanges” between Pyongyang and Moscow.

After initially denying claims about the deployment of North Korean troops, Pyongyang and Moscow have taken a vaguer position, saying their military cooperation complies with international law, without directly endorsing the presence of North Korean troops in Russia to give in.

North Korea is also accused of supplying millions of artillery shells and other military equipment to Russia to fuel the war in Ukraine. The United States and its partners have described Russia’s purchase of North Korean personnel and supplies as a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions and have raised suspicions that Moscow is helping Pyongyang evade sanctions and unlawfully boost its weapons program. finance.

Russia, along with China, has blocked US-led efforts in the Security Council to tighten sanctions on North Korea over its recent missile tests, which intensified after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. vetoed a UN resolution to extend observers’ mandates in March, in a move that effectively abolished UN experts’ oversight of Security Council sanctions on North Korea. It led to Western accusations that Moscow was acting to protect its arms purchases from Pyongyang.

“The illegal military cooperation between Russia and North Korea poses a significant security threat to the international community and is a serious matter that could potentially harm our security. We must thoroughly investigate all possibilities and prepare countermeasures,” Yoon said at a cabinet meeting in Seoul on Tuesday.

Yoon raised the possibility last week Supplying Ukraine with weapons while saying Seoul is preparing countermeasures that could be rolled out in phases depending on the level of military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow.

South Korea, a growing arms exporter, has provided humanitarian aid and other non-lethal support to Ukraine and joined U.S.-led economic sanctions on Moscow. So far, the country has resisted calls from Kiev and NATO to supply Ukraine directly with weapons, citing a long-standing policy of not supplying weapons to countries engaged in active conflict.

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Associated Press reporter Lolita C. Baldor contributed from Washington.