KYIV, Ukraine, Oct 26, (AP): North Korean troops are poised to be deployed by Russia on the battlefield in Ukraine as early as this weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed Friday. Western officials have warned that North Korean units joining the fight would stoke the almost three-year war and bring geopolitical consequences as far away as the Indo-Pacific region.

The possibility has alarmed leaders and deepened diplomatic tensions. White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Friday that the top national security advisers for the United States, Japan and South Korea met and "expressed grave concern” about North Korea’s troop deployments for potential use with Russia on the battlefield against Ukraine.

Kirby said that the national security advisers from the three countries "call on Russia and the DPRK to cease these actions that only serve to expand the security implications of Russia’s brutal and illegal war beyond Europe and into the Indo-Pacific.” "It is possible that there are now more than 3,000 troops from North Korea that have been dispatched to Russia for outfitting and for training,” Kirby said on a call with reporters.

Kirby said the U.S. government did not have firm intelligence assessments on where the troops were going "but we believe it is certainly possible” and "perhaps even likely” that some of the North Korean troops would be deployed to the Kursk region of Russia, where Ukraine has held some territory since capturing it in August.

But he cautioned that he did not know in what capacity and to what purpose the North Korean troops would be deployed. A senior official in the Ukrainian presidential office told The Associated Press on Friday that Zelenskyy had canceled a planned visit to Kyiv by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.