Al Jazeera Podcasts.

Today, fresh reinforcements for Russia's war in Ukraine from North Korea.

Pentagon says it now has evidence that roughly 10,000 North Korean troops are in fact training inside Russia and likely headed to the border with Ukraine.

As the war nears its third year and both sides scramble for troops, how will this impact the front lines?

I'm Natasha Deltoro, and this is The Take.

I'm Zoran Kustov, and I've been working as a security and geopolitical analyst for, I'm afraid to say, almost four decades.

And I know that we have spoken with you here on the take before, so we're really glad to have

you back. Thank you.

So we're talking today about North Korea and Russia and the war in Ukraine.

The U.S. Pentagon said on Monday that North Korea has sent 10,000 troops to Russia to train.

It's also stated that these North Korean soldiers were likely to fight on the battlefield front lines against Ukraine.

This has generated a lot of headlines.

So, Zeran, maybe you could start by giving us a little bit of the lay of the land here.

What do we know?

We have a confirmation from the U.S. and from NATO.

And that what originally were the rumors that North

Koreans were in the Russian Far East preparing and to take part in combat in Ukraine.

So we have a confirmation that that indeed is through.

We have seen evidence of DPRK troops that have gone into Russia.

Now the numbers are all over the place, I have to say.

Some sources claim 1,000, other sources claim 3,000,

and there are quite a few sources that say up to 10,000.

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