North Korea confirms it sent troops to help Russia in Ukraine
A statement by leader Kim Jong Un was the first confirmation from North Korea of the deployment.
North Korea has confirmed for the first time that it sent troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine.
US, South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence officials have said North Korea dispatched about 10,000-12,000 troops to Russia last year, but North Korea had not confirmed or denied its reported troop deployments to Russia until Monday.
Leader Kim Jong Un decided to send combat troops to Russia under a mutual defence treaty, the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers’ Party said in a statement.
It cited Mr 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,” Mr Kim said, according to the statement sent to state media.
In March, South Korea’s military said North Korea sent about 3,000 additional troops to Russia earlier this year, after its soldiers deployed on the Russian-Ukraine fronts suffered heavy casualties.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs assessed around 4,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed or wounded.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier put the number of killed or wounded North Koreans at 4,000, although US estimates were lower at around 1,200.
In March, Mr Kim expressed his unwavering support for Russia’s war in Ukraine during a meeting with top Russian security official Sergei Shoigu in Pyongyang.
State media reports said Mr Kim and Mr Shoigu reaffirmed their commitment to uphold the mutual defence treaty agreed last year.
Russian deputy foreign minister Andrei Rudenko told Russian media the governments were discussing a potential visit by the North Korean leader to Moscow.
North Korea has been supplying a vast amount of conventional weapons to Russia. South Korea, the US and their partners worry Russia could reward North Korea 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 as well.
North Korean soldiers are highly disciplined and well trained, but observers say they’ve become easy targets for drone and artillery attacks on Russian-Ukraine battlefields due to their lack of combat experience and unfamiliarity with the terrain.
Still, Ukrainian military and intelligence officials have assessed that the North Koreans are gaining crucial battlefield experience and have been key to Russia’s strategy of overwhelming Ukraine by throwing large numbers of soldiers into the battle for Kursk.
