North Korean troops have already reached Russia’s Kursk region near the Ukrainian border, NATO confirmed on Monday, in a sign that the allies could frame the DPRK deployment as a defensive measure to repel Ukrainian forces from Russian territory.

“I can confirm that North Korean troops have been sent to Russia, and that North Korean military units have been deployed to the Kursk region,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said in a statement on Monday.

He described the deployment of Korea People’s Army (KPA) units as a “significant escalation” in Pyongyang’s involvement in Moscow’s offensive against Ukraine and a breach