North Korean troops in Russian uniforms are heading toward Ukraine, US says

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday that North Korean troops wearing Russian uniforms and carrying Russian instrumentality are moving to nan Kursk region adjacent Ukraine, successful what he called a vulnerable and destabilizing move.

Austin was speaking astatine a property convention pinch South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, arsenic concerns turn astir Pyongyang’s deployment of arsenic galore arsenic 11,000 troops to Russia.

He said officials are discussing what to do astir nan deployment.

Austin said nan U.S. remains concerned that Russia will usage nan North Korean troops successful combat, but “whether they will beryllium employed successful nan conflict is yet to beryllium seen.”

Kim said he doesn’t needfully judge nan deployment will trigger warfare connected nan peninsula, but could summation information threats betwixt nan 2 nations. There is simply a “high possibly” that Pyongyang would inquire for higher technologies successful speech for its unit deployment, specified arsenic successful atomic and ballistic rocket capabilities, he said, speaking done an interpreter.

Seoul and its friends measure that nan number of North Korean troops now dispatched successful Russia has increased to 11,000, according to a elder South Korean statesmanlike official, who said connected information of anonymity during a inheritance briefing. More than 3,000 of them are believed to person moved toward combat zones successful occidental Russia, nan charismatic said, without specifying nan locations.

Some North Korean beforehand units of those troops person already arrived successful Kursk, wherever Ukraine has successfully held territory aft a surprise counter-incursion successful August.