"We just received some information..... that indicates that there are right now 8000 [North Korean] soldiers in Kursk Oblast," said Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Robert wood during a UN Security Council meeting in New York on Thursday.
"And I have a very respectful question for my Russian colleague. Does Russia still maintain that there are no [North Korean] troops in Russia?" he asked. But his Russian counterpart Anna Evstigneeva declined to answer.
He also pointed out that the two countries' military cooperation "violates multiple UN Security Council resolutions."
But the figures vary as Ukraine's United Nations Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya said about 4,500 North Korean troops are expected to arrive at Ukraine's border this week to possibly engage in battles alongside Russian forces in November.
Earlier this week, he estimated that around 12,000 North Korean troops including three generals and 500 officers are training at several military bases in eastern Russia. Ukraine also revealed the names of three North Korean generals - Kim Yong-bok, Ri Chang-ho, and Shin Geum-chul.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also confirmed the same day that he expects North Korean troops to join the fight against Ukraine "in the coming days."
"We now assess that there are some 10,000 North Korean soldiers in total in Russia, and the more recent information indicates that as many as 8,000 of those North Korean forces have been deployed to the Kursk region," he said after a 2+2 ministerial meeting between the U.S. and South Korean foreign and defense chiefs in Washington.
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