Key points
- Sent troops into combat under mutual defence treaty: Pyongyang
- Admission comes days after Russia confirmed N Korea’s participation
- S Korea claims Pyongyang sent over 10,000 soldiers to Russia
ISLAMABAD: North Korea has confirmed for the first time that it sent troops to Russia to support Moscow’s war against Ukraine, and that its forces had contributed to taking back Russian territory held by Ukraine’s military in the Kursk region.
In a statement provided to North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Monday, the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers’ Party said that the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, had sent troops into combat alongside Russian forces as part of a mutual defence treaty between Moscow and Pyongyang.
The admission comes just days after Russia confirmed the North’s participation, with South Korean and Western intelligence agencies having long reported that Pyongyang sent more than 10,000 soldiers to help in Kursk last year, according to Al Jazeera.
“The sub-units of our armed forces,” the North’s Central Military Commission said in the KCNA report, had “participated in the operations for liberating the Kursk areas according to the order of the head of state of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea”.
Mutual defence treaty
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s decision to deploy the troops, it said, was in accordance with a mutual defence treaty.
“They who fought for justice are all heroes and representatives of the honour of the motherland,” Kim said according to KCNA.
Kim added that a monument to the “battle feats” would soon be built in the capital, and referred to “the tombstones of the fallen soldiers”, publicly confirming that North Korean troops had been killed in combat.
The country must “take important national measures to specially honour and care for the families of war veterans,” said Kim.
According to the Central Military Commission, “the operations for liberating the Kursk area to repel the adventurous invasion of the Russian Federation by the Ukrainian authorities were victoriously concluded”.
“Heroism”
Russian Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov on Saturday hailed the “heroism” of the North Korean soldiers, who he said “provided significant assistance in defeating the group of Ukrainian armed forces”.
South Korea’s Ministry of Defence said Monday during a regular press briefing that North Korea’s troop deployment violates UN Security resolutions.
Experts believe the decision to publicly disclose the deployment had been agreed on in advance by North Korea and Russia, according to AFP.
Despite Moscow claiming the “liberation” of its western region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that Ukraine’s army was still fighting in Kursk.
