N Korea deploys troops

10,000 unlikely to make much of a difference to the war, says analyst.

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The deployment of North Korean troops to help Russia in its war against Ukraine is unlikely to have a significant impact on the fighting on the ground but could affect security interests in Asia, Europe and elsewhere, analysts said.

Growing military ties between Moscow and Pyongyang are a major concern for Washington and Brussels as Russian leader Vladimir Putin presses ahead with his efforts to build an anti-Western alliance.

"The conflict is becoming international," said Pascal Dayez-Burgeon, a North Korea expert and former French diplomat in Seoul.

But while he said he understood Western concerns about the risk of the possible expansion of the war, now in its third year, he downplayed any immediate threat to the global security architecture.

"In reality, I find it hard to see North Korea presenting a threat of escalation," he said, calling the North a "small dictatorship".