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About 8,000 North Korean soldiers are stationed in Russia on the border with Ukraine, the US secretary of state has said, warning that Moscow is preparing to deploy those troops into combat 'in the coming days'. The announcement was the clearest statement yet from the US that it anticipated the first large-scale deployment of foreign troops into the Russia-Ukraine war since Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. The Guardian's Russian affairs reporter, Pjotr Sauer, explains why Russia plans to use North Korean soldiers in its war against Ukraine