Kyiv announces new mobilisation drive as Moscow advances

Concern grows in Ukraine, the West over N. Korea's military cooperation with Russia

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Kyiv announced a fresh mobilization drive on Oct 29 as Moscow seized the mining hub of Selydove, and the US said some North Korean troops were in Russia's Kursk region, warning that thousands more were on their way.

Russia has been making swift advances in the eastern Donetsk region for weeks, and on Oct 29 said it had "fully" captured Selydove, whose estimated population of around 21,000 people has fled from Moscow's drone and rocket attacks.

Concern has grown in Kyiv and the West over North Korea's military cooperation with Russia, with neither the Kremlin nor Pyongyang denying that the reclusive country's troops were in Russia.

The Pentagon said a "small number" of Pyongyang's troops have been deployed in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces have held on to land since summer.

Its spokesman, Major-General Pat Ryder, said the US had information that "a couple of thousand more (North Korean troops) are either almost there or due to arrive imminently".

President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke with South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol on Oct 29 and agreed on deeper cooperation.

Ukraine has been struggling with deepening manpower shortages over recent months and is embroiled in an unpopular debate about how to bolster the military's ranks.