Zelensky says North Korean troops are ready to be deployed

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Friday that the top national security advisers for the United States, Japan and South Korea met and “expressed serious concern” about the deployment of North Korean troops for potential use with Russia on the battlefield against Ukraine.

Kirby said national security advisers from the three countries “are calling on Russia and the DPRK to cease these actions that serve only to extend the security implications of Russia’s brutal and illegal war beyond Europe and into the Indo-Pacific.”

“It is possible that now more than 3,000 North Korean soldiers have been sent to Russia for equipment and training,” Kirby said on a call with reporters.

Kirby said the U.S. government did not have firm intelligence assessments of where the troops were headed “but we think it’s certainly possible” and “maybe even likely” that some of the North Korean troops were deployed to Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukraine has held some territory since capturing it in August. But he cautioned that he did not know in what capacity and for what purpose the North Korean troops would be deployed.

A senior official in the Ukrainian presidential office told The Associated Press on Friday that Zelensky canceled a planned visit to Kiev by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said the visit is expected to take place after this week’s summit in the Russian city of Kazan of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, at which Guterres participated.

A photo of Guterres shaking hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the summit sparked a protest in Ukraine.

Zelenskyy, in a post on Telegram, said Ukrainian intelligence had determined that “the first North Korean army will be used by Russia in combat zones” between Sunday and Monday.

He said on Telegram that the deployment was “an obvious growing move by Russia.” He did not provide other details, including where the North Korean soldiers might be sent.

Russia waged a ferocious summer campaign along Ukraine’s eastern front, gradually forcing Kiev to cede ground. But Russia has struggled to push Ukrainian forces out of its border region of Kursk after an incursion nearly three months ago.

North Korean units were detected in Kursk on Wednesday, according to Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate, known by its acronym GUR.

The soldiers underwent several weeks of training at bases in eastern Russia and were equipped with clothes for the coming winter, GUR said in a statement late Thursday.

It estimated the number of North Korean soldiers sent by Pyongyang to Russia at about 12,000, including about 500 officers and three generals.

GUR has not provided any evidence for its claims.

Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans said on social media platform X on Friday that intelligence reports indicated that North Korean soldiers “will probably first be deployed in Kursk.”

The deployment of North Korean forces under a military pact between Moscow and Pyongyang adds a new dimension to the conflict, which is Europe’s biggest war since World War II and has cost tens of thousands of lives on both sides, including many civilians.

The US said on Wednesday that 3,000 North Korean troops had been deployed to Russia and were training at multiple locations, taking the move very seriously.

Zelenskyy said a week ago that his government had intelligence that 10,000 North Korean soldiers were ready to join Russian forces fighting his country. He said a third nation entering hostilities would turn the conflict into a “world war”.

North Korea has already supplied ammunition to Russia as part of a defense pact, but putting boots on the ground could seriously complicate a war that has inflamed international politics, with most Western countries backing Kiev.

Meanwhile, Putin sought support among the BRICS countries.

He neither confirmed nor denied that North Korean troops were in Russia.

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Mike Corder in The Hague and Josh Boak in Washington contributed.