North Korea confirms it sent troops to fight for Russia

Telegraph

28-04-2025

North Korea has acknowledged for the first time that it sent troops to Russia to fight against Ukraine at the personal request of Kim Jong-un.
Reports of North Korean involvement has been circulated for months, but this is the first time either side has publicly confirmed the alliance.
Kim, the country's autocratic leader, praised the soldiers for their ' fighting spirit and heroism ' and defined it as a 'sacred mission for further consolidating as firm as a rock' relations between North Korea and Russia.
Pyongyang 'regards it as an honour to have an alliance with such a powerful state as the Russian Federation', state media reported.
'Defend our Motherland'
Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, expressed gratitude to Kim and 'the entire leadership and the people of North Korea' on Monday.
'We commend the North Korean soldiers' heroism, their excellent training and dedication displayed while fighting, shoulder to shoulder with Russian soldiers, defending our Motherland as their own,' he said, according to the Kremlin press service.
The decision to send North Korean troops to Russia was made by order of Kim in accordance with Pyongyang's comprehensive strategic partnership with Moscow, signed last year, state media said.
The partnership stipulates that the other will provide military assistance and support by all means at its disposal in the event of an armed attack on one country.
The invocation of the treaty and the deployment also show the deepening ties between Pyongyang and Moscow.
'The invincible militant friendship between the two countries, verified at the cost of blood in the flames of battles, will greatly contribute to expanding and developing the future relations of friendship and cooperation between the DPRK and Russia,' the Korean Central News Agency said.
It reported that the country's soldiers 'participated in the operations for liberating the Kursk area' for 'nearly nine months', referring to the war-torn region in western Russia.
North Korea's deployment of troops to Russia, along with large quantities of artillery ammunition and missiles, was an unprecedented move for Pyongyang and gave Moscow the upper hand on the battlefield.
Ukraine estimates that as many as 14,000 North Korean soldiers, including 3,000 reinforcements, were sent to Russia to fight Ukrainian forces in Kursk.
South Korea's National Intelligence Service reported in March that more than 4,000 North Korean troops had been injured or killed in the conflict, but Pyongyang has never confirmed this.
Lee Seong-kweun, a member of South Korea's national assembly, told The Korea Herald: 'North Korea recovers the bodies of its dead soldiers as much as they can, rather than leaving them behind, in an effort to cover up any signs of their involvement in the war.'
Kyiv staged a surprise incursion into Kursk last August, but Moscow has claimed the territory is back under its control.
Valery Gerasimov, a top Russian commander, said on Sunday that the last village held by Ukrainian troops in Kursk had been recaptured, but Ukraine has denied the claim and said its troops are still present in parts of the Russian territory.
South Korea's defence ministry issued a strong response, claiming the North was 'admitting to a criminal act' and condemning it for the 'inhumane and immoral' decision to send its soldiers to battle to gain greater legitimacy.
Jeon Ha-gyu, the spokesman for South Korea's ministry of national defence, said: 'North Korea's participation in the Ukraine war is a clear violation of the UN Charter and Security Council resolutions, constituting an illegal act.'
The US demanded that North Korea stop its deployment to Russia and halt any support it might be receiving from Russia in exchange.
'The deployment of North Korean soldiers to Russia must end. Third-party countries like North Korea bear responsibility for the war,' the State Department said in a statement on Sunday.
During his first term as president, Donald Trump met Kim three times, but little came from the meetings. Since he returned to office, he has expressed an interest in renewing contact with Kim, though no developments have yet been reported.