North Korean troops in Kursk a ‘significant escalation’: NATO chief

North Korean troops have been deployed to Russia, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte confirmed on Monday, citing a “dangerous expansion” of the Ukraine conflict that risks undermining security in both Europe and Korea.

His remarks follow claims from Ukrainian intelligence that around 11,000 North Korean infantrymen were training in eastern Russia, alongside support Pyongyang has provided by sending weapons and industrial manpower.

Deployment of North Korean troops to the Kursk region, invaded by Ukraine in August, “represents a significant escalation in the DPRK’s [North Korea’s] ongoing involvement in Russia’s illegal war,” he said.

The breach of UN resolutions was a “dangerous expansion of Russia’s war” following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, said Rutte, the former Dutch Prime Minister who took over at NATO earlier this month.

He also said the reliance on foreign support was a “sign of Putin’s growing desperation” in a conflict that has, according to Rutte, seen 600,000 Russian troops killed or wounded.

His remarks came after the North Atlantic Council met South Korean intelligence, and diplomats from Australia and Japan, to discuss allegations which Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described as the “first step to the world war”.

Ukraine has already started posting videos in Korean calling on the soldiers to surrender as prisoners of war.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin last week already confirmed the presence of North Korean troops in Russia, but declined to say whether they were acting as co-belligerents.