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North Korea has sent about 10,000 troops to Russia who could join Moscow’s fight in Ukraine in the coming weeks, the Pentagon said amid growing concerns about Pyongyong’s involvement in Vladimir Putin’s war.

The soldiers are believed to be heading to the Kursk border region, where Moscow has suffered recent defeats and is struggling to push back Ukrainian forces, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Sigh said on Monday.

On Tuesday, South Korean lawmakers, briefed by the country’s spy agency, said some senior North Korean military officials and troops deployed in Russia could move to the front lines.

Lawmakers did not provide a timetable, but the comments come as NATO confirmed Pyongyang’s shipment of troops to Russia. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte officially confirmed reports that North Korean military units were already in the Kursk region.

South Korea and the US have raised alarm that North Korea is sending troops to join Russia’s war against Ukraine so that Russia can in return offer technology that would counter the threat of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and missile program can enlarge.

Last week, South Korea’s spy chief told lawmakers that 3,000 North Korean troops are being trained in the use of equipment including drones before being sent to fight in Ukraine.

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Moscow and Pyongyang initially denied the accusations, but later took a vaguer position, claiming that their military cooperation complies with international law. The Russian president sidestepped the question about the North’s deployment of troops, saying: “This is our sovereign decision.”

“Whether we use it or not, where, how and whether we do exercises, train or transfer some experience. It is our business,” Putin told reporters.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, in telephone conversations with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Mr Rutte, shared South Korean intelligence assessments that North Korean troops could be deployed to fronts “faster than expected” deployed.

He called for closer coordination with European governments aimed at “monitoring and blocking” illegal exchanges between Pyongyang and Moscow, Yoon’s office said in a statement.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky cited information about the preparation of two units with possibly as many as 12,000 North Korean troops that would participate in the war alongside Russian troops.

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Ukraine published a video showing dozens of North Koreans lining up to pick up Russian military equipment after South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said Pyongyang had shipped 3,000 troops, half of them for training, to Russia’s Far East.

Ukraine claims Russia has deployed around 50,000 troops in the Kursk region, while independent military analysts suggest Kiev has deployed nearly 30,000 soldiers. New York Times reported. The additional North Korean troops could help Russia drive Ukrainian soldiers out of the region.

“Given their numbers, it is possible that they will have an impact on the conduct of hostilities in certain areas,” said Artem Kholodkevych, deputy commander of the 61st Mechanized Brigade of Ukraine. Times.

The NATO chief told reporters in Brussels that the North Korean deployment marks a “significant escalation” of Pyongyang’s involvement in the conflict and “a dangerous expansion of the Russian war.”

US President Joe Biden joined the outrage, calling the deployment “very dangerous.”

“When we see North Korean troops advancing to the front lines, they are co-belligerents in the war,” Singh said, using the acronym for Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or North Korea. “This is a calculation that North Korea has to make.”

The Ukrainian military has reportedly issued Ukrainian-Korean language guides for its troops to urge North Korean troops to surrender, while Russia planned to appoint one interpreter for every 30 North Korean soldiers for battlefield coordination .

The North is preparing to launch a new military satellite with technological help from Russia, the Yonhap news agency reported, citing South Korea’s spy agency.