Nato has confirmed North Korea’s troop deployment to the combat zone in western Russia, as it warned that Pyongyang’s involvement in the war in Ukraine constituted a threat to both European and Indo-Pacific security.
“I can confirm that North Korean troops have been sent to Russia and that North Korean military units have been deployed to the Kursk region,” Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte said on Monday after a meeting with a delegation from South Korea and representatives from the Indo-Pacific.
He described the deployment as a “significant escalation in the DPRK’s ongoing involvement in Russia’s illegal war” and “a dangerous expansion of Russia’s war”. Rutte’s comments came after Russian troops pressed further into eastern Ukraine over the weekend, capturing towns and inching closer to the logistical hub of Pokrovsk.