BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Ukraine's president accused North Korea on Thursday of deploying officers alongside Russia and preparing to send thousands of troops to help Moscow's war effort, although NATO's chief said there was no evidence of Pyongyang's presence at this stage.

South Korean intelligence has found that North Korea has dispatched 12,000 troops including special operation forces to support Russia’s war against Ukraine, news reports said Friday, a development that could bring a third country into the war and intensify a standoff between North Korea and the West.

We know about 10,000 soldiers of North Korea, that they are preparing to send to fight against us,” Zelensky told reporters in Brussels on Thursday. Ukraine officials have for weeks said that North Korean soldiers were fighting in Ukraine,