MOSCOW, November 1. /TASS/. Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has left without comment US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's statement about the readiness of DPRK troops, allegedly deployed to the Kursk Region, to join the fighting in Ukraine in the near future.

"I have nothing to add to what we have previously stated on this issue," Peskov said.

Earlier, Blinken argued that 8,000 out of the 10,000 DPRK servicemen allegedly on Russian territory had been moved to the Kursk Region, but they were not yet involved in combat operations against the Ukrainian military. He remarked that the US expected this to happen in days. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin claimed that the troops were "outfitted with Russian uniforms and provided with Russian equipment," which allegedly indicated that Russia intended to use these foreign forces in frontline operations against Ukraine.

Peskov told a news briefing on Thursday that Moscow was committed to developing relations with Pyongyang in all areas and this should neither scare nor worry anyone. For her part, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the strategic cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang was not unusual or extraordinary, contrary to the Western attempts to demonize it. She stated that those who sought peaceful interaction with Moscow had nothing to worry about at all.