NATO confirms that North Korea has sent troops to join Russia's war in Ukraine

NATO on Monday confirmed that North Korean troops have been sent to Russia to aid in its almost three-year war against Ukraine and that some have already been deployed in Russia's Kursk border region, where Russia has been struggling to push back a Ukrainian incursion.

NATO on Monday confirmed that North Korean troops have been sent to Russia to aid in its almost three-year war against Ukraine and that some have already been deployed in Russia's Kursk border region, where Russia has been struggling to push back a Ukrainian incursion.

"Today, 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 told reporters.

Rutte said that the move represents "a significant escalation" in North Korea's involvement in the conflict and marks "a dangerous expansion of Russia's war."

His remarks came after a high-level South Korean delegation including top intelligence and military officials as well as senior diplomats briefed the alliance's 32 national ambassadors at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

Rutte said NATO is "actively consulting within the alliance, with Ukraine, and with our Indo-Pacific partners," on developments and that he is due to talk soon with South Korea's president and Ukraine's defence minister. "We continue to monitor the situation closely," he said.

Adding thousands of North Korean soldiers to Europe's biggest conflict since World War II will pile more pressure on Ukraine's weary and overstretched army, as well as stoking geopolitical tensions in the Korean Peninsula and the wider Indo-Pacific region, including Japan and Australia, western officials say.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is keen to reshape global power dynamics. He sought to build a counterbalance to western influence with a summit of BRICS countries, including the leaders of China and India, in Russia last week.