North Korea confirmed for the first time Monday that it sent troops to fight alongside Russian forces in the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine.
In a statement via the state-run KCNA news agency, the North Korean Central Military Commission claimed its soldiers helped Russian forces “completely liberate” the Kursk border region following an order given by North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
“Comrade Kim Jong Un decided on our armed forces’ participation in the war, informed the Russian side of it and, in accordance with agreement, issued an order … to annihilate and wipe out the Ukrainian neo-Nazi occupiers and liberate the Kursk area in cooperation with the Russian armed forces,” the statement said.
“Comrade Kim Jong Un defined it [the mission] as a sacred mission for further consolidating as firm as a rock the traditional friendship and solidarity between the DPRK and Russia,” it added.
Later Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked Kim and the North Korean troops for their “solidarity” and “heroism.”
“We highly appreciate this and are sincerely grateful, personally to the Chairman of the State Affairs Committee, Comrade Kim Jong-un, as well as to the entire leadership and the people of North Korea,” Putin said.
The report comes just two days after Valery Gerasimov, chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, acknowledged North Korean troops had fought in the war alongside Russia and praised their “heroism.”
Gerasimov also claimed Russia had regained full control of the country’s western Kursk region. Kyiv has denied the claim, saying that Moscow’s statements “do not correspond to reality.”
According to U.S., South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence officials, North Korea dispatched approximately 10,000 to 12,000 troops to Russia last fall. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy previously estimated that about 4,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed or wounded, while U.S. officials offered a lower estimate of around 1,200 casualties.
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