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The deployment of 10,000 or so North Korean troops to Russia marks a sharp escalation and internationalization of Europe’s biggest war in generations, with potential impacts on the battlefield, in Europe, and in Northeast Asia. It’s an embarrassing comedown for Moscow, bad news for Ukraine, and a very scary development for South Korea and the rest of the world.

Pyongyang has been underwriting Russia’s war in Ukraine for years by supplying literal boatloads of artillery shells. Injecting actual combat troops into the war at a critical time not only ratchets up the pressure on a war-weary and manpower-weak Ukraine, it also deepens the bonds and implications of the four-month-old Russia-North Korea mutual defense pact.

The deployment of 10,000 or so North Korean troops to Russia marks a sharp escalation and internationalization of Europe’s biggest war in generations, with potential impacts on the battlefield, in Europe, and in Northeast Asia. It’s an embarrassing comedown for Moscow, bad news for Ukraine, and a very scary development for South Korea and the rest of the world.

Pyongyang has been underwriting Russia’s war in Ukraine for years by supplying literal boatloads of artillery shells. Injecting actual combat troops into the war at a critical time not only ratchets up the pressure on a war-weary and manpower-weak Ukraine, it also deepens the bonds and implications of the four-month-old Russia-North Korea mutual defense pact.

“It’s a big escalation, because there’s a difference between sending ammunition and sending forces,” said Rob Lee, a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Eurasia program.

Last week, reports started circulating about North Korean troops being dispatched to Russia. Within days, the reports were confirmed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and by South Korean intelligence, which said about four brigades of North Korean special forces have been dispatched to Russia for training and acclimatization. On Wednesday, the United States joined the fray after U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed the North Korean deployment to Russia, though he confessed he couldn’t quite........

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