SEOUL, South Korea — The U.S. defense secretary said Wednesday that there is evidence that North Korea sent troops to Russia, calling their participation in the war in Ukraine a “very, very serious problem.” alongside Moscow and warning of possible consequences.

South Korea’s intelligence chief, meanwhile, told lawmakers that 3,000 North Korean troops are now in Russia to receive training on drones and other equipment before being deployed to the war fields. battle in Ukraine.

The United States had not yet officially confirmed the sending of North Korean troops.

“We see evidence that North Korean troops” went to Russia, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters during a visit to Rome. “Exactly what they do – remains to be seen.”

He added: “If they are co-belligerents, their intention is to participate in this war on behalf of Russia, this is a very, very serious problem, and it will have impacts not only in Europe, but also in the whole world. Indo-Pacific.

He called it the “next step” after the North supplied weapons to Russia, and said Pyongyang could face consequences for its direct aid to Russia. He did not provide details, saying analysts were assessing the situation.

South Korean intelligence was the first to release reports that the Russian navy had taken 1,500 North Korean special warfare troops to Russia this month, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his government had intelligence that 10,000 North Korean troops were prepared to join the Russian invasion forces.

Russia and North Korea have denied the troop movements. They have significantly strengthened cooperation over the past two years and in June signed a major defense agreement requiring both countries to use all available means to provide immediate military assistance if either is attacked.

South Korean officials fear that Russia will reward North Korea with sophisticated weapons technology that could bolster its nuclear and missile programs targeting South Korea. South Korea said Tuesday it would consider supplying weapons to Ukraine in response to the announced troop shipment.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said Tuesday that sending North Korean troops to Ukraine would mark a “significant escalation,” and said he had asked the South Korean president to send experts in Brussels next week to brief the military alliance.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service Director Cho Tae-yong told lawmakers on Wednesday that 1,500 additional North Korean troops had crossed into Russia, according to lawmaker Park Sunwon, who attended the closed-door briefing. Cho.

Cho told lawmakers that his agency had estimated that North Korea intended to deploy a total of 10,000 troops to Russia by December, Park told reporters.

Park quoted Cho as saying that the 3,000 North Korean troops sent to Russia had been distributed among several military bases. Cho told lawmakers that the NIS believed he had not yet been deployed in combat, Park said.

Also jointly speaking about the briefing, lawmaker Lee Seong Kweun said the NIS found that the Russian military was teaching North Korean soldiers how to use military equipment such as drones.

Lee quoted the NIS chief as saying that Russian instructors have a high opinion of the morale and physical strength of North Korean soldiers, but believe they will eventually suffer heavy casualties because they do not have an understanding of modern warfare. Lee, quoting Cho, said Russia was recruiting a large number of interpreters.

Lee said the NIS detected signs that North Korea was transferring family members of soldiers selected to be sent to Russia to special sites to isolate them. The NIS chief told lawmakers that North Korea did not disclose sending troops to its own people.

Ukraine’s military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov told online military newspaper The War Zone on Tuesday that North Korean troops were expected to arrive in Russia’s Kursk region on Wednesday to help Russian troops fight off a Ukrainian incursion.

Last week, South Korea’s intelligence agency said North Korea had sent more than 13,000 containers of artillery, missiles and other conventional weapons to Russia since August 2023 to replenish its stockpiles. weapons in decline.

Reports that the North would send troops to Russia have fueled security jitters in South Korea. It has provided humanitarian and financial aid to Ukraine, but has so far avoided directly supplying weapons, in line with its policy of not supplying weapons to countries actively engaged in conflicts.

North Korea has 1.2 million troops, one of the largest standing armies in the world, but it has not participated in large-scale conflicts since the 1950-1953 Korean War. Experts question how much North Korean troops could help Russia, citing lack of combat experience.

Experts say North Korea wants Russia’s economic support and help in modernizing its outdated conventional weapons systems as well as its high-tech weapons technology transfers.

After a meeting in London with his German counterpart Boris Pistorius, British Defense Secretary John Healey said it seemed “very likely” that North Korean troops had been deployed in Russia. Pistorius said this highlights the challenges of dealing with international conflicts that are “coming closer and closer to each other and linked to each other”.

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Baldor reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul, Illia Novikov and Hanna Arhirova in kyiv, Ukraine, Danica Kirka in London and Jari Tanner in Helsinki contributed to this report.