This is CBS.

Hi on the World.

I'm John Batchel.

Gordon Chang, at Gordon G.

G. Chang, my colleague and co-host, and we're very pleased to welcome David Maxwell,

vice president of the Center for Asia-Pacific Strategy, to help us with the recurring stories

of North Korea deploying combat troops into the European

theater. At some point, the stories are vague. They go as far as POWs or defectors testifying.

They include reports of combat operations underway or have been underway. They also include the

possibility that North Korean troops are replacing Russian troops that can be released for the front.

It's all over the place. So, David, welcome. And can you clarify any of these reports?

And let me ask a focused way. Are there North Korean combat troops,

first-rate troops, in action right now? Good day to you, David. Yes, good day. And you have a very

difficult question. I can't provide any good clarification because, as you said, the reports are all

over the map. And there's a lot of

circular reporting. A few reports that are being repeated over and over again, so we have to be

wary of that. I do believe, though, it is accurate to say that there are some North Korean troops

who have been engaged in combat and are in Russia in the Kirk's region.

Kirk's region.

And one of the reports that I think is interesting is that, you know, North Korean

troops in Russian uniforms, trying to be passed off as Russian Asians, and most importantly, they're scattered, supposedly

scattered and integrated along 1,500 kilometers of the front line. And what that tells me,

...