MADRID 5 Nov. () –
The spokesman for the United States Department of Defense, Patrick Ryder, stated this Monday that there are up to 12,000 North Korean soldiers in Russia, of which 10,000 would be in the Russian region of Kursk, near the border with Ukraine, although he specified that has not been able to corroborate whether they have participated in combat with Ukrainian troops, after kyiv assured that the first clashes had already occurred.
Ryder has noted that although they believe there are now 10,000 troops in Kursk, those numbers “could increase slightly in terms of the total number of North Koreans in Russia.” “We have seen press reports about alleged combat operations. We are investigating them, but at this moment we cannot corroborate them,” he declared at a press conference.
In this sense, he recalled that as the head of the Pentagon, Lloyd Austin, said this week, if these troops participate in combat support operations against Ukraine, “they would become legitimate military objectives.”
For his part, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller has expressed concern about the “partnership” between Pyongyang and Russia. “We are concerned that they will move to the front to enter the fight against Ukraine,” he declared, highlighting that “could enter combat in the coming days.”
Last week, South Korean Intelligence indicated that Pyongyang would be paying about 2,000 dollars (about 1,850 euros) per month to each troops deployed to provide this service. Thus, he explained that all of them are being trained in Russian territory given the differences at a technical and military level between the different Armies.
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