White House monitoring reports of North Korean soldiers deployed to Russia: 'Highly concerning'

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Monday that the United States is monitoring reports that North Korean soldiers are "deploying to Russia" to fight in Ukraine. 

"We're obviously continuing to look into those reports," Kirby said. "We're talking to our allies and partners about what they're saying on this as well. If it's true that the DPRK soldiers are going there to join the war against Ukraine, it would certainly mark a dangerous and highly concerning development." 

Kirby said the development signaled "another demonstration of Putin's growing desperation and his growing isolation that he's got to reach out to North Korea for potential – potential, as I said, we're looking into the reports – potential infantry support, to his ground operations." 

"There's no question about it, that his forces continue to suffer an extraordinary amount of casualties on the battlefield," Kirby said, referencing figures of Russia losing more than 1,200 soldiers per day.

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"That is a truly historic amount of soldiers killed and wounded in this fight, all to accomplish but a warped and twisted idea of his about Ukraine's ability to exist as a sovereign state," Kirby said. "I think all of this is and proves the point that Mr. Putin is increasingly desperate and increasingly isolated on the world stage." 

The U.S. and NATO have not confirmed that North Korean troops were sent to Russia. But the reports of their presence have already stoked concerns in South Korea that Russia might provide North Korea with sophisticated technologies that can sharply enhance the North's nuclear and missile programs in return for its troop dispatch.

South Korea on Monday summoned the Russian ambassador to protest deepening military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow and demand the immediate pullout of the North Korean troops. 

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South Korea's spy agency said Friday it had confirmed that North Korea sent 1,500 special operation forces to Russia this month to support Moscow's war against Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier said his government had intelligence that 10,000 North Korean soldiers were being prepared to join invading Russian forces.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, will be shaking hands this week with multiple world leaders, including China’s Xi Jinping, India’s Narendra Modi, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian. They will convene in the Russian city of Kazan on Tuesday for a meeting of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, defying predictions that the war in Ukraine and an international arrest warrant against Putin would turn him into a pariah.

The alliance, which aims to counterbalance the Western-led world order, initially included Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa but started to rapidly expand this year. Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia joined in January; Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia formally applied, and a number of others expressed a desire to be members.

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"These countries can decide for themselves who they want to associate with and, especially how they want to be economically linked with one another. Russia is increasingly isolated on the world stage," Kirby said Monday. "There's no question about that. Mr. Putin is still having to take radical steps to prop up his, currency, and to keep his war economy going." 

Putin is expected to end the BRICS conference with a press conference on Thursday, Reuters reported.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.