North Korean troops could turn Ukraine into ‘world war’, Zelensky says

Hans van LeeuwenEurope correspondent

Oct 18, 2024 – 5.26am

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Brussels | North Korea’s potential deployment of troops to fight with the Russians in Ukraine could turn the European conflict into a “world war”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned.

Mr Zelensky said his intelligence agencies believe up to 10,000 North Korean soldiers could be sent into Russia’s grinding territorial advance in Ukraine, as he travelled to a NATO meeting in Brussels to raise fears of an escalating and potentially global conflict.

Hans van Leeuwen covers British and European politics, economics and business from London. He has worked as a reporter, editor and policy adviser in Sydney, Canberra, Hanoi and London.