US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin estimates that some 10,000 members of the North Korean military are in Russia's Kursk region.
Towards a larger conflict? The United States anticipates that the thousands of North Korean troops stationed in Russia will “soon” fight Ukrainian forces, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said on Saturday (November 23).
The American Secretary of Defense estimates that some 10,000 members of the North Korean army are in the Russian region of Kursk, bordering Ukraine and partly occupied by Kiev forces, and are “integrated into Russian formations “.
“Based on what (the North Korean soldiers) have been trained in, the way in which they have been integrated into Russian formations, I fully expect to see them engaged in combat soon,” he said. added to reporters from the Fiji Islands, where he is visiting.
50,000 new soldiers?
Lloyd Austin said he had “not seen any significant reports” of North Korean soldiers “actively engaged in combat” to date.
South Korean government officials and a research organization said this week that Moscow was providing fuel, anti-aircraft missiles and economic aid to Pyongyang in exchange for troops – which Seoul and Washington accuse North Korea of sending. .
kyiv warned that Russia had assembled some 50,000 soldiers, including several thousand North Korean soldiers, to regain control of areas of the Kursk region occupied by the Ukrainian army which launched an offensive there in early August.
