North Korean troops are already in Russia, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says

and US defense secretary LD Austin is now saying there's evidence that North Korea has sent troops to Russia this comes after a video recently serviced online showing a large group of people appearing to be North Korean soldiers walking in what looks like Russia the date of the video is unknown secretary Austin says the presence of troops poses a danger for Regions far beyond Ukraine if they're co- belligerant they're intention is to participate uh in this war on on uh Russia's behalf uh that is a very very serious uh issue and it will have impacts not

only uh on uh uh in Europe it'll also impact uh uh things uh in the indopacific as well and let's go now to Patrick Revel in London with more Patrick what's the main concern surrounding these troops at this point hi Dan yeah I mean I think there's significant concern mainly about the fact that North Korean troops appear to be joining the war because of what it means it means that we now have another country um doing something that's almost unprecedented really seeing North Korean troops arrive um to fight against Ukraine a European country but I

think you know what we've heard from North Korea and South Korea so from South Korea and Ukraine I should say sorry is that um they believe around 12,000 North Korean troops are being sent to Russia to fight against Ukraine they say that they are on Russian military bases already being trained around 3,000 of them this um the head of Ukraine's Military Intelligence have said that they believe the first North Korean troops around 2,600 will arrive at the Russian region of Kus which is the region where Ukraine managed to gain a foothold with its surprise incursion

back in August and where Russia has been struggling to dislodge them so he said that they would arrive already tomorrow that would mean potentially we could even see um North Korean troops fighting against Ukrainian forces in the coming days it should be said though that defense secretary Austin has said that so far the US is not sure what exactly um North Korean troops are doing in Ukraine he says uh that the US is still trying to work that out but as you say clearly and as we heard him say there uh this they believe would

be a very serious uh development if this is If This Were to take place to Patrick on the on the flip side of that Austin also seemed to imply that if these troops are there the fact that Russia needs the help from North Korea could mean Russia's in trouble yeah he did say that Lloyd Austin did say that one of the uh conclusions that can be drawn potentially from the fact that Russia has had to turn to North Korea for troops underlines how Russia is struggling with Manpower because of the enormous casualties that it's taking

the Pentagon assesses that Russia has now lost around 600,000 troops dead and wounded since its invasion in 2022 of course that is an enormous number US officials also say that Russia in particular has been losing huge numbers of troops just in the last few months because it is on the offensive in eastern Ukraine I think though while of course um this does suggest that Russia is having to scratch around to try and find more troops the fear is still very real that North Korea could provide more and while 12,000 right now is not that significant

I think the fear is that if thousands more North Korean troops were to arrive that could become very very concerning for Ukraine Diane all right ABC's Patrick reville in London thank you Patrick