The United States on Monday said it would be a dangerous development for North Korea to send troops to support Russia in Ukraine, as Seoul has asserted.

"We have seen reports the DPRK has sent forces and is preparing to send additional soldiers to Ukraine to fight alongside Russia," Robert Wood, US ambassador to the United Nations, told the Security Council.

"If true, this marks a dangerous and highly concerning development and an obvious deepening of the DPRK-Russia military relationship," Wood said, using the acronym for the North's official name.

"We are consulting with our allies and partners on the implications of such a dramatic move," he added.

Seoul's spy agency said on Friday that North Korea had decided to send a "large-scale" troop deployment to support Moscow's war in Ukraine, with 1,500 special forces already in Russia's Far East and undergoing training.

The agency estimated the North could send around 12,000 soldiers in total.

The US State Department is "not yet at a point where we're able to confirm those reports and whether they are accurate," deputy spokesman Vedant Patel said Monday.

France's UN envoy Nicolas de Riviere told the UN Security Council that the deployment of North Korean soldiers would constitute a further escalation.

He added that Pyongyang's "increasing support for the Russian war effort is very worrying."

The United States and its allies have already voiced concern about North Korea providing weapons to Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022. 

At least 34 people, including two babies were killed when a contraband fuel depot exploded into flames in southern Benin near the border with Nigeria on Saturday.

According to Beninese Interior Minister Alassane Seidou, “a serious fire occurred in the town of Seme Podji. Another 20 people were seriously wounded in the incident.”

"I can't really give you the cause of the fire, but there is a large gasoline warehouse here and cars, tricycles and motorcycles come from morning to evening,” he added.

Nigeria is a main oil and gas producer where fuel smuggling is very common along its borders, particularly when the government maintains a subsidy to keep fuel prices low.

The majority of the victims were burnt and they could not be not be identified.

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