Pentagon says North Korean troops have arrived in Russia's Kursk region

According to RIA Novosti, the Pentagon believes that several thousand North Korean soldiers are believed to have been sent to Russia's Kursk region, while a total of about 10,000 North Korean soldiers are believed to have been deployed to Russia. Most of them are training in eastern Russia.

"We believe that North Korea has sent a total of about 10,000 troops to train in eastern Russia and that these troops are likely to reinforce Russian forces near the Ukrainian border in the coming weeks. Some troops have moved closer to Ukraine, toward Kursk, while several thousand are already in the Kursk region of Russia," Pentagon spokesman Patrick Ryder told reporters at a press briefing on October 29 (Washington time).

However, Mr Ryder did not provide any evidence and did not explain why he came to such a conclusion.

Earlier, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that on October 28, the South Korean delegation provided the alliance with “evidence” of North Korea sending troops to Russia, including the Kursk region, but he did not elaborate on what the evidence was.

In response to reports of North Korean soldiers appearing in Russia, President Putin said in the “60 Minutes” program on the Russia-1 TV channel that the issue of mutual military assistance is a matter of sovereignty for Russia and North Korea, and only they can decide whether to limit themselves to exercises and experience exchange within the framework of a provision stipulated in the defense cooperation agreement, or “to apply something more.”

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stressed that the interaction between Moscow and Pyongyang in the military sphere does not violate the norms of international law; at the same time, she called the “excitement” in South Korea over reports of North Korea sending troops to Russia “stuffing and exaggeration.”