(2nd LD) U.S. says N. Korea has sent about 10,000 troops to eastern Russia

North Korea has sent around 10,000 troops to eastern Russia, which will likely augment Russian forces near Ukraine "over the next several weeks," a U.S. National Security Council (NSC) official said Monday, as President Joe Biden called the deployment "very dangerous." A NSC spokesperson made the remarks after North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Mark Rutte confirmed that North Korean troops have been deployed to Russia's western front-line Kursk region -- a development feared to further escalate the protracted war in Ukraine. "We believe that North Korea has sent around 10,000 total soldiers to train in eastern Russia that will probably augment Russian forces near Ukraine over the next several weeks," the spokesperson said in response to a question from Yonhap News Agency. "A portion of those soldiers have already moved closer to Ukraine." Earlier, Pentagon's Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh made the same statement during a press briefing, according to a transcript posted on the Department of Defense's website. "We are increasingly concerned that Russia intends to use these soldiers in combat or to support combat operations against Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk Oblast near the border with Ukraine," she said. "Should DPRK soldiers be used on the battlefield, this would mark a further escalation and highlights President Putin's increasing desperation as Russia has suffered extraordinary casualties on the battlefield, and an indication that Putin may be in more trouble than people realize," she added. DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Singh warned that should North Korean troops enter into combat, there would not be limitations on the use of U.S.-provided weapons on those forces. "If we see DPRK troops moving in and towards the front lines, I mean, they are co-belligerents in the war. So they are fighting on these front lines and the Ukrainians are defending their sovereign territory and pushing the Russians back," she said. "So, this is a calculation that North Korea has to make." Casting an early ballot at the state of Delaware Department of Elections, Biden made his first public comment on the North's troop deployment. "(It's) very dangerous, very dangerous," he told reporters after casting a vote. "The idea that Kamala's opponent's talking to Putin and discussing what should be done ... I mean, anyway," he added, apparently referring to former President Donald Trump. Source: Yonhap News Agency