Nearly 200 North Korean defectors living in South Korea are pushing to deploy to Ukraine to launch a psychological warfare campaign against North Korean troops expected to join the fight with Russia, reports the South China Morning Post.

North Korea has sent about 10,000 troops to Russia to train and fight in Ukraine within "the next several weeks," the Pentagon said Monday, in a move that Western leaders say will intensify the almost three-year war and jolt relations in the Indo-Pacific region.

Ahn Chan-il, a defector and head of the World Institute for North Korea Studies, told SCMP that the group are "veterans who understand North Korea's military mindset better than anyone."

The defectors would "conduct psychological warfare, rescue these soldiers, and dismantle the North's mercenary policies," according to a mission statement.

"Most North Korean soldiers, including elite special forces, suffer from food shortages and malnutrition. The soldiers you see on televised parades are a carefully selected few — they're the alpha of the entire population," said Ahn, who defected in 1979.

Lee Min-bok, another leading figure in the initiative, has appealed directly to Ukraine.

"North Korean soldiers are there essentially as mercenaries, but we would go as volunteers with a goodwill mission. Simply our presence in Ukraine could significantly impact the morale of North Korean troops," he said.

Adding thousands of North Korean soldiers to Europe's biggest conflict since World War II will pile more pressure on Ukraine's weary and overstretched army. It will also stoke geopolitical tensions in the Korean Peninsula and the wider Indo-Pacific region, including Japan and Australia, Western officials say.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this story.

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• North Korea Sent 10,000 Troops to Train in Russia