US will not restrict Kyiv's use of weapons against North Korean forces in Ukraine

The US will not set any restrictions for the use of American weapons against North Korean troops if they enter the war between Russia and Ukraine, according to the Pentagon.

The US Department of Defense said it estimated 10,000 North Korean troops had been deployed to Russia for training.

But the US has now said that if North Korean troops are put in the firing line in Ukraine, that will not affect how Ukrainian troops use US weaponry.

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Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon spokesperson, said a number of those North Korean troops have "already moved closer to Ukraine".

"We are increasingly concerned that Russia intends to use these soldiers in combat or to support combat operations against Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk Oblast near the border with Ukraine," the Pentagon spokesperson said.

Earlier this week, Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte said military units from North Korea had been deployed to Russia's Kursk region, an area Ukrainian forces grabbed in a surprise summer offensive.

However, Ms Singh declined to confirm North Korean forces were present in Kursk.

"It is likely that they are moving in that direction towards Kursk. But I don't have more details just yet," Ms Singh said.

It comes after Ukrainian intelligence services said they feared North Korean troops were about to be deployed in Ukraine alongside Russian forces imminently.

Ukraine's president Volodymr Zelensky said the country's military leader, Oleksandr Syrskyi, informed him that the first of Pyongyang's forces could be deployed within the next three days.

"North Korea's actual involvement in combat should not be met with indifference or uncertain commentary, but with tangible pressure on both Moscow and Pyongyang, to uphold the UN Charter and to hold them accountable for this escalation,” he said.

Reported footage surfaced online appearing to show North Korean troops being trained inside Russia.

The video was shot through a fence by what sounds like a young Russian man, and Open Source intelligence researchers are said to have geolocated it to Primorsky Krai – an area of eastern Russia that borders North Korea.

The footage shows a large group of soldiers, said to be North Koreans, marching to a training area.