Western officials said they were aware of the reports but were treating them with caution at this stage.
“We are tracking the possible deployment of North Korean troops to Russia,” one official told reporters.
“North Korea has for quite some time now provided significant artillery munitions to Russia to support the war. And this is a new body of reporting that we’re tracking.”
The official said the reports concerned between 2,000 and 12,000 North Koreans but that – if verified – “it’s probably towards the lower number”.
“In terms of the veracity, it is a little bit too early to tell, to get some ground truth behind actually what is happening here,” the official said.
