Blinken says North Korean troops expected to deploy into combat against Ukrainian forces ‘in the coming days’.

Some 8,000 North Korean soldiers are now in Russia near Ukraine’s border and are preparing to help the Kremlin fight against Ukrainian troops in the coming days, the United States has said.

The new figure is a dramatic increase from a day earlier, when Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said only “some” troops had moved towards Ukraine’s border in the Kursk region, where Moscow’s forces have struggled to push back a Ukrainian incursion.

That also would mean most of the North Korean troops that the US and its allies say have been sent to Russia are now on the Russia-Ukraine border.

The US has estimated there are about 10,000 North Korean troops in Russia. Seoul and its allies assess that the number has increased to 11,000, while Ukraine has put the figure higher, at up to 12,000.

Of the 8,000 in Kursk, “we’ve not yet seen these troops deploy into combat against Ukrainian forces but we would expect that to happen in the coming days,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a news conference on Thursday with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and their South Korean counterparts.

He said Russia has been training North Korean soldiers in artillery, drones and “basic infantry operations, including trench clearing, indicating that they fully intend to use these forces in front-line operations”.

North Korea’s move to tighten its relationship with Russia has raised concerns around the world about how that may expand the war and what Russian military aid could be delivered in exchange.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Robert Wood also told the Security Council that the US has received information indicating that “right now” there are 8,000 North Korean troops in Russia’s Kursk region.

“I have a very respectful question for my Russian colleague: Does Russia still maintain that there are no DPRK troops in Russia?” Wood said, referring to North Korea’s formal name: the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The Russian representative in the 15-member Security Council at the time did not respond to Wood.

Moscow has neither denied nor directly confirmed the presence of North Korean troops. After an initial denial, North Korea has since defended the idea of deploying troops as being in line with international law.

Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In August this year, Ukrainian forces fought their way into the Russian border area of Kursk, where they continue to hold territory.

The US, UK, South Korea, Ukraine and others accuse Russia of violating UN resolutions and the founding UN Charter with the deployment of troops from North Korea, which has long been under UN sanctions aimed at halting Pyongyang’s development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.