Leader Kim Jong-un gave the order to send troops under the strategic partnership treaty signed with Putin last year, state media said
North Korea has confirmed for the first time it has sent troops to fight for Russia in the war against Ukraine under the order of leader Kim Jong-un.
North Korea’s Central Military Commission cited Kim as saying the deployment was meant to “annihilate and wipe out the Ukrainian neo-Nazi occupiers and liberate the Kursk area in co-operation with the Russian armed forces”.
“They who fought for justice are all heroes and representatives of the honour of the motherland,” the statement, sent to state media, quoted Kim as saying.
The US says it is concerned by the country’s direct involvement in the war and urged Pyongyang’s military deployment to end.
North Korea’s ruling party also claimed its soldiers had made an important contribution to the apparent liberation of Russian territory occupied by Ukraine.
The end of the battle to liberate Russia’s Kursk region showed the “highest strategic level of the firm militant friendship” between North Korea and Russia, KCNA state news agency cited the North’s ruling party as saying.
North Korea “regards it as an honor to have an alliance with such a powerful state as the Russian Federation,” KCNA said.
Russia said last week Ukrainian forces had been expelled from the last Russian village they had been holding, although Kyiv denied the claim and said their troops were still operating in Belgorod, another Russian region bordering Ukraine.
The US state department said it was “concerned by [North Korea’s] direct involvement in the war, adding third countries like North Korea “bear responsibility” for the war.
Ukrainian and western officials have estimated that North Korea has sent as between 10,000 and 14,000 troops to the war effort, including 3,000 reinforcements to replace its losses.
Lacking armoured vehicles and drone warfare experience, they took heavy casualties but adapted quickly.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs estimated that around 4,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed or wounded, however the US assessed the figure to be around 1,200.
In January, Ukrainian forces captured two North Korean soldiers in Russia’s Kursk region, Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Russia confirmed on Saturday for the first time that North Korean soldiers have been fighting alongside Russians in Kursk.
Neither Russia nor North Korea had previously either confirmed or denied the deployment.
North Korea has been supplying a vast amount of conventional weapons to Russia.
South Korea, the US and their partners have expressed concern Russia could reward Pyongyang by transferring high-tech weapons technologies, which can sharply enhance its nuclear weapons programme.
North Korea is expected to receive economic and other assistance from Russia under the partnership deal.
With agencies