A US administration spokesman expressed “concern” on Tuesday about reports of North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine.

On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused North Korea of ​​bolstering the Russian armed forces with troops, claiming that Ukrainian intelligence services had informed him of North Korea’s “involvement in the war” raging in Ukraine.

The Kremlin dismissed the claim as “fake news”.

Sean Savett, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, emphasized that the deployment of North Korean troops in Ukraine, if true, would be a milestone in North Korea’s defense cooperation with Russia. “Such a move would indicate the desperation Russia has fallen into as it continues to suffer significant losses on the battlefields of this barbaric war in Ukraine,” he said.

Washington claims that North Korea has supplied Russia with ballistic missiles and ammunition. Both Moscow and Pyongyang have denied allegations of arms transfers, but have pledged to boost defense cooperation, possibly with military exercises.

The commander of US forces in the Indo-Pacific region, General Charles Flynn, said at an event in Washington that the possible involvement of North Korean troops in the Ukraine war would allow Pyongyang to gather real-time information about the effectiveness of its weapons systems, something that was impossible until now.

“For North Korea to collect this kind of information from a real battlefield so that it can make adjustments to weapons, ammunition and capabilities (…) is, to me, very concerning,” he explained at the Center for a New American Security’.

Vladimir Putin signed a military cooperation agreement with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during the Russian president’s visit to Pyongyang in June. Among other things, it provides that each side will offer military assistance to the other in the event of an attack.