(Worthy News) – Confirming reports by Ukraine and South Korea, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday there is evidence that North Korea has sent troops to Russia for military training, an act he said would be “very, very serious,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
According to South Korea’s main intelligence agency North Korea has now sent 3,000 troops to Russia for training, WSJ reports. South Korean officials reportedly believe North Korea intends to send 12,000 troops to Russia.
“There is evidence that there are [North Korean] troops in Russia,” Austin told reporters. “What exactly they’re doing? Left to be seen. These are things that we need to sort out.” If North Korea intends to “participate in this war on Russia’s behalf, that is a very, very serious issue,” Austin added.
“The US and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies have warned that dispatching North Korean troops to the front lines in Ukraine would represent a major escalation in the conflict between Moscow and the Washington-led West,” WSJ noted in its report.
“Russia has been using growing numbers of Iranian and North Korean missiles as it wages a fierce air war, but welcoming foreign troops onto its soil would represent a new dimension in how Moscow works with its international partners,” WSJ said.