SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Senior South Korean and European Union officials on Monday strongly condemned North Korea sending troops to help Russia in its war against Ukraine and agreed to work together to try to block deepening military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang.

North Korea’s alleged troop deployment threatens to expand a nearly three-year-old war and is causing security concerns in South Korea, where many fear Russia could reward the North with sophisticated weapons technology or a defense commitment in the event of conflict on the Korean peninsula.

At a meeting in Seoul, South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun and visiting EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell expressed “serious concerns” about sending troops north -Korean and “strongly condemned” it, according to a statement from the South Korean government. Ministry of Defense.

The two agreed to work together with the international community to try to obstruct security cooperation between Russia and North Korea, the statement said.

The U.S. government said Thursday that about 8,000 North Korean troops were in Russia near the Ukrainian border and were preparing to join Russia’s fight against Ukraine in the coming days. The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky On Friday, he urged allies to stop just “watching” and take action before North Korean troops deployed in Russia reach the battlefield.

According to assessments by American, South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence services, North Korea has sent between 10,000 and 12,000 troops to Russia. If they begin fighting Ukrainian forces, it would mark North Korea’s first involvement in a large-scale conflict since the end of the Korean War (1950-1953).

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has used the Russia-Ukraine war as a way to expand military and economic cooperation with Russia in the face of an intensifying U.S.-led pressure campaign against its advanced nuclear program. The United States, South Korea and others accuse North Korea of ​​having already exported artillery shells, missiles and other conventional weapons to Russia.

Over the past two years, Kim has also stepped up testing of nuclear-capable missile systems, while Russia and China have repeatedly blocked U.S.-led attempts to strengthen international sanctions against South Korea. North due to its testing activities in defiance of UN bans. North Korea has also pushed break up relationships and abandon its long-held goal of reconciliation with South Korea.

In a news conference with local media on Monday, South Korea’s military said North Korea had built trench-like anti-tank structures at two sites near Korea’s heavily armed border, where it blew up the northern parts of unused cross-border roads and railways. last month, in a show of anger toward South Korea. One of the sites is in the western part of the border and the other in the eastern part.

Details of the briefing were shared with The Associated Press.

The structure on the eastern part of the border was 160 meters (524 feet) long, while the one on the western part of the border was about 120 meters (393 feet), according to the South Korean military briefing.

In the event of war, the North could easily fill the trenches with nearby piles of earth to create routes to invade the South, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Recent commercial satellite images suggest that work on the trenches began shortly after North Korea staged choreographed demolitions of a road near the North Korean border town of Kaesong and a combined road and rail section near the border Eastern Korea on October 15.

Last week, North Korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile intended to attack the continental United States for the first time in nearly a year.