"The scale of deployed North Korean troops is being closely watched," Yoon Yeocheol, South Korea's ambassador to the U.K., told Newsweek.

Ukrainian and South Korean intelligence services have said that many of the troops deployed to Russia are some of Pyongyang’s best, drawn from the 11th Corps, also known as the Storm Corps - a unit trained in infiltration, infrastructure sabotage and assassinations.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with Russia's natural resources minister Alexander Kozlov on Monday, state media KCNA reported, in the latest sign of growing ties between Pyongyang and Moscow.

On the one hand, the deployment of the North Korean troops seems a logical follow-up to the mutual defense treaty signed by Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin in Pyongyang in June. On the other hand, it raises a series of important questions.

The United States said on Monday it was Russia that is escalating the conflict in Ukraine by deploying North Korean troops, after the Kremlin warned that Washington would deepen its involvement in the war by allowing Kyiv's forces to strike far into Russia with U.

North Korea may deploy as many as 100,000 troops to aid Russia’s war on Ukraine if the alliance between Pyongyang and Moscow continues to deepen, according to people familiar with assessments made by some Group of 20 nations.

Vladimir Putin has warned that such a green light would mean that NATO was "at war" with Russia.

North Korea could send up to 100,000 troops to support Russia's war in Ukraine. Source: Bloomberg, citing sources familiar with estimates made by some of the G20 countries Details: According to one source,