North Korea confirms soldiers sent to fight with Russia

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 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”.

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.