Latest news with #Korean Central News Agency
CNA
24-07-2025
- Politics
- CNA
North Korea's Kim urges troops to prepare 'for real war'
SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has urged his military to be ready "for real war" as he observed a firing contest of artillery units, Pyongyang state media said on Thursday (Jul 24). Kim's remarks follow the North's deployment of troops and weapons to help Russia during its more than three-year-long offensive in Ukraine. Video footage aired by state-run Korea Central Television on Thursday showed soldiers from artillery units firing shells towards the sea. Kim is seen looking through binoculars at an observation post, flanked by two military officials, but the location for Wednesday's contest was not disclosed. He urged the soldiers to be ready "for real war" at "anytime" and be capable of "destroying the enemy in every battle", the Korean Central News Agency reported in an English dispatch. South Korean and Western intelligence agencies have reported that Pyongyang sent more than 10,000 soldiers to Russia's Kursk region last year, along with artillery shells, missiles and long-range rocket systems. Around 600 North Korean soldiers have been killed and thousands more wounded fighting for Russia, Seoul has said. Kim offered Moscow his full support for its war in Ukraine during recent talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, state media reported previously.
Japan Times
14-07-2025
- Politics
- Japan Times
Ukraine denies North Korea planning to send 30,000 more troops to Russia
Kyiv's military intelligence agency has denied a report that North Korea plans to send up to 30,000 additional troops to Russia in the coming months to aid in Moscow's war in Ukraine. The denial of a CNN report earlier this month citing Ukrainian intelligence and Western security sources came as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that Pyongyang is ready to "unconditionally support" Moscow's every effort to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Sunday. Lavrov, who wrapped up a three-day visit to North Korea the same day, expressed Moscow's intention to 'further intensify the strategic and tactical cooperation' between the two sides 'in the international arena,' according to KCNA. Pyongyang has provided troops and weapons for Russia's war in Ukraine, and has pledged continued military support as Moscow looks to solidify gains made in recent months — a move that highlights the speed at which bilateral ties have deepened since the nations signed a mutual defense treaty just over a year ago. But the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Main Directorate of Intelligence told The Japan Times in an emailed statement over the weekend that it 'has no information regarding plans to increase the contingent of the Korean People's Army on the territory of the Russian Federation to 30,000 military personnel in the coming months.' Such a move would almost triple the total number of North Korean soldiers directly supporting Moscow after an estimated 14,000 were sent last year to repel Ukraine's incursion into Russia's Kursk region. It would also mark an intensification of the more than 3-year-old conflict that is now stretching across Europe and Asia. Instead, the Ukrainian military intelligence agency confirmed that it believed Pyongyang is preparing to send military engineering units totaling 6,000 military personnel — 1,000 sappers and 5,000 engineering and construction troops — to clear mines and carry out reconstruction work in the Kursk region over the next two months. 'The transfer of these units is planned to be carried out in batches of 1,500 to 3,000 personnel in two or three stages during July and August of this year,' the agency said, revealing details of the deployment for the first time. Also planned is the deployment to Russia of 50 to 100 units of North Korean equipment, including M2010, or Cheonma-D, main battle tanks and BTR-80 armored personnel carriers. This image taken from Korean Central Television on June 29 shows a screen displaying North Korean leader Kim Jong Un touching flag-draped coffins of North Korean soldiers killed fighting Ukrainian forces, during an event attended by Kim and Russian Minister of Culture Olga Lyubimova in Pyongyang. | KCTV / VIA AFP-JIJI A deal on the dispatch of those troops was announced by Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu in mid-June following talks with Kim in Pyongyang, a meeting Shoigu said was meant to carry out "special instructions" from Russian President Vladimir Putin. The latest developments come as Pyongyang on Sunday slammed a joint aerial exercise recently conducted by the United States, Japan and South Korea that featured several fighter aircraft and at least one U.S. B-52 heavy bomber, marking the aircraft's first deployment to the Korean Peninsula this year. In a separate KCNA report, Pyongyang expressed 'serious concern' over what it views as persistent 'provocative and threatening military actions' by the three countries, and issued a warning of 'grave consequences' should they continue to 'deliberately ignore' North Korea's security concerns. Held Friday over international waters south of Jeju Island to 'strengthen deterrence and response capabilities,' the exercises coincided with a trilateral Joint Chiefs of Staff meeting held in Seoul earlier in the day. 'This year the U.S. is continuously posing a danger to the security environment of our state while renewing the records in the number of deploying strategic strike means on the Korean peninsula and drastically increasing the frequency and scale of joint military drills with its satellite countries,' Pyongyang said, adding that the trilateral military cooperation between Washington, Tokyo and Seoul 'is getting more offensive.'
