North Korea admits sending troops to fight against Ukraine

North Korea has confirmed for the first time that it sent troops to Russia to support Moscow’s war against Ukraine, Al Jazeera reports.

The country also said 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 KCNA quoted Kim as saying that soldiers were deployed to “annihilate and wipe out the Ukrainian neo-Nazi occupiers and liberate the Kursk area in cooperation with the Russian armed forces”.

“They who fought for justice are all heroes and representatives of the honour of the motherland,” KCNA quoted Kim as saying.

North Korea “regards it as an honour to have an alliance with such a powerful state as the Russian Federation”, KCNA said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kim signed a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty in June last year, committing the two countries to come to each other’s assistance, militarily, in the event of war.

According to South Korea’s official Yonhap News Agency, Kim also said that a monument would be built soon in the capital, Pyongyang, to honour those who had fought against Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials said earlier this year that some 14,000 North Koreans were deployed against its forces, including 3,000 reinforcements who were sent to replace the North Koreans’ early battlefield losses.