U.S. at OSCE says reviewing response to DPRK’s possible participation in war against Ukraine

U.S. Chargé d'Affaires at the OSCE Katherine Brucker said this during a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna, Ukrinform reports.

"If DPRK sdiers deploy into combat against Ukraine, this would be profoundly reckless and destabilizing on the part of Russia. We are consulting closely with our allies and partners over how we would respond and are reviewing a full range of additional picy tions," she said.

According to Brucker, the United States believes the DPRK has sent around 10,000 sdiers to train in eastern Russia and assumes that these North Korean tros will augment Russian forces near Ukraine "over the next several weeks." At the same time, a small number of DPRK sdiers are already present in Russia's Kursk region, near the border with Ukraine.

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"We are increasingly concerned that Russia intends to use these sdiers in combat or to support combat erations against Ukrainian forces in Kursk. We do not yet know whether these sdiers will enter into combat alongside the Russian military, but this is an acute and highly concerning probability," Brucker said.

She stressed that if DPRK sdiers do enter into combat, this would "demonstrate Russia's inability to sustain its own tro levels; its growing desperation; and a dangerous expansion of its war against Ukraine."

In addition, Russia's turn to a pariah state for assistance showcases "Moscow's growing reliance on these partners and its continued flaunting of international law, including relevant UN Security Council resutions."

Photo: crisisgroup.org