The US Department of Defense confirmed on Monday that North Korea has sent some 10,000 troops to train in Russia, revising the Pentagon's previous estimate of 3,000, while NATO and Brussels fear a dangerous escalation.
Moscow and Pyongyang have stepped up military cooperation since Russia's invasion of Ukraine began in February, but the involvement of North Korean troops in combat would mark a major turning point.
"We believe that the DPRK has sent approximately 10,000 troops to train in eastern Russia," said Pentagon deputy spokeswoman Sabrina Singh, which would "likely" lead to a "build-up of Russian forces near Ukraine in the coming weeks".
She noted that "some" of these forces "have already moved closer to Ukraine".
US President Joe Biden said on Monday that North Korea sending thousands of troops to Russia was a "very dangerous" development.
On the ground, the Russian army has advanced 478 square kilometres into Ukrainian territory since the beginning of October, the largest one-month advance since March 2022, according to an analysis by Agence France-Presse on Monday based on data from the US Institute for the Study of War.
By 27 October, Russian forces had taken control of more territory than in August and September (477 and 459 square kilometres respectively), particularly in eastern Ukraine.
Hours before the Pentagon's statements, the new secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), Mark Rutte, warned against increased cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang.
Speaking at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels, Rutte said he could confirm that North Korean military units had been sent to the Kursk region in western Russia, warning that this was a "major escalation".
"The deepening military cooperation between Russia and North Korea is a threat to the security of the Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic regions," he told a news conference.
"The deployment of North Korean troops in Kursk (Russia) is also a sign of Putin's growing desperation," he added.
Ukrainian forces have been conducting a ground operation in Kursk since August, seizing control of hundreds of square kilometres of Russian territory.
Rutte said more than 600,000 Russian troops had been killed or wounded since the conflict began, adding that the Kremlin could not continue the invasion without outside support.
After a phone call with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the deployment of North Korean troops "for the first time" in support of Russia's war of aggression was a turning point.
"It is a dangerous escalation and a threat to world peace," she said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week called on his Western allies to impose sanctions on Russia and North Korea.
"Sanctions are not enough. We need weapons and a clear plan to prevent North Korea from getting more involved in the war in Europe," Andriy Yermak, head of the presidential administration in Ukraine, said in a post on the X platform on Monday, stressing that "North Korean troops are in the Kursk region".
"Today Russia is intervening in North Korea, and then it may expand its involvement (in the war), and other authoritarian regimes may see that they can get away with it and come and fight NATO," he added.
"The enemy understands the language of force. And our allies have that force," Yermak concluded, referring to the military support Kiev expects from its allies to confront Moscow.
For its part, North Korea stressed that any deployment of soldiers in Russia would be "in accordance" with international law, without confirming or denying their presence.
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