North Korea might send reinforcements to Kursk region, U.S. says

North Korea may send reinforcements to the Kursk region for Russia's war against Ukraine within the next two months, according to a Pentagon representative, as reported by The New York Times.

The official stated that the US expects North Korean military reinforcements "within the next two months."

The newspaper notes that Russia has allocated areas for North Korean soldiers to carry out assaults in the Kursk region, and unlike Russian forces, they are advancing almost without armored vehicles.

Celeste Wallander, former assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs under the Biden administration, said North Koreans are special operations soldiers trained for strike missions, but the Russian military primarily uses them as infantry.

Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s top military commander, said this week that North Korean losses continued to climb, estimating that almost half those sent had been either injured or killed, but he warned that they were “highly motivated, well-trained” and “brave.”

"With 1.2 million troops, North Korea’s military ranks among the world’s largest standing armies, and its entry into the war was a profound escalation in a war now approaching its fourth year," the article states.

• On January 21, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported that 4,000 North Korean soldiers out of a total of 12,000 had been killed in the battles in the Kursk region.