SpaceWar.com reports: “The United States expects that thousands of North Korean troops massing in Russia will ‘soon’ enter combat against Ukraine, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said Saturday.

About 10,000 North Korean soldiers were believed to be based in the Russian border region of Kursk, Austin said, where they were being ‘integrated into the Russian formations’.

‘Based upon what they’ve been trained on, the way they’ve been integrated into the Russian formations, I fully expect to see them engaged in combat soon,’ Austin told reporters during a stopover in Pacific nation Fiji.

Austin said he had ‘not seen significant reporting’ of North Korean troops being ‘actively engaged in combat’ to date.

South Korean government officials and a research group on Thursday said Russia has provided Pyongyang with oil, anti-air missiles and economic help in exchange for the troops Washington and Seoul have accused it of sending…”