For those a bit confused, this is the first time the US military has agreed with Ukrainian and occupied Korean claims that the DPRK has sent troops intended for Ukraine itself and marks an escalation in propaganda rhetoric.

I've archived the source to avoid giving the AP clicks for uncritically carried western propaganda.

US issued meaningless threat that they would be considered combatants and targeted by weapons the west gave them if they fought there alongside Russian troops (duh, very confusing and kinda telling statement).

“Today, I can confirm that North Korean troops have been sent to Russia, and that North Korean military units have been deployed to the Kursk region,” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte told reporters. Rutte said the move represents “a significant escalation” in North Korea’s involvement in the conflict and marks “a dangerous expansion of Russia’s war.”

Adding thousands of North Korean soldiers to Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II will pile more pressure on Ukraine’s weary and overstretched army. It will also stoke geopolitical tensions in the Korean Peninsula and the wider Indo-Pacific region, including Japan and Australia, Western officials say.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is keen to reshape global power dynamics. He sought to build a counterbalance to Western influence with a summit of BRICS countries, including the leaders of China and India, in Russia last week. He has sought direct help for the war from Iran, which has supplied drones, and North Korea, which has shipped large amounts of ammunition, according to Western governments.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov shrugged off Rutte’s comments and noted that Pyongyang and Moscow signed a joint security pact last June. He stopped short of confirming North Korean soldiers were in Russia.

The Ukraine regime is now claiming that these troops could be on the battlefield in days. A strange reversal from claims they were already on the battlefield and they'd captured some which happened a week ago. Time must be moving backwards there.

IMO this represents a pretext being invented to give Ukraine an excuse to use long-range weapons for deep strikes into Russia by saying it's fair game for the US to help as the DPRK is helping Russia (as if those two things are equal). In other words a desperate rush to nuclear war.

(Original source)