As Seoul has said, the United States stated on Monday that it would be a risky step for North Korea to deploy soldiers to back Russia in Ukraine.

Robert Wood, the US ambassador to the UN, informed the Security Council, “We have seen reports the DPRK has sent forces and is preparing to send additional soldiers to Ukraine to fight alongside Russia.”

The North’s official name is abbreviated as DPRK. “If true, this marks a dangerous and highly concerning development and an obvious deepening of the DPRK-Russia military relationship,” Wood said.”We are consulting with our allies and partners on the implications of such a dramatic move,” he said.

North Korea has chosen to send a “large-scale” soldier deployment to back Moscow’s conflict in Ukraine, according to Seoul’s intelligence service, which announced on Friday. 1,500 special troops are now in Russia’s Far East, receiving training.

According to the agency, the North might dispatch a total of around 12,000 troops.

Deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said on Monday that the US State Department is “not yet at a point where we’re able to confirm those reports and whether they are accurate.”

The UN Security Council was informed by France’s UN representative, Nicolas de Riviere, that the deployment of North Korean military would be a further escalation.

Pyongyang’s “growing support for the Russian war effort is very worrying,” he said.

Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and the US and its allies have already expressed alarm about North Korea giving weapons to the Russian army.