Putin hails North Korean ‘heroes’ as Pyongyang confirms its troops fought for Russia

Vladimir Putin thanked North Korean soldiers for their “heroism” on Monday as Pyongyang confirmed for the first time that it had sent troops to help the Russian military recapture the country’s western Kursk region from Ukrainian forces.

“We pay tribute to the heroism, high level of specialised training and selflessness of the Korean soldiers who, shoulder to shoulder with Russian fighters, defended our motherland as if it were their own”, Putin said in a statement released by the Kremlin, adding that Russia’s “Korean friends” acted out of “a sense of solidarity, justice and genuine camaraderie”.

The Russian people would “never forget the feats of the Korean special forces fighters”, Putin said, extending personal thanks to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

Putin’s remarks came shortly after North Korea’s leadership gave the first official confirmation that it had sent its troops to fight alongside the Russian military against Ukrainian units in Kursk.

North Korean state news agency KCNA published a statement from the country’s Central Military Commission on Monday confirming that troops had been sent to “annihilate and wipe out the Ukrainian neo-Nazi occupiers and liberate the Kursk area in cooperation with the Russian armed forces”.

The troops’ deployment to Kursk was ordered by Kim, who considered it their “sacred mission”, under a strategic partnership agreement signed between Moscow and Pyongyang last year, KCNA said.

A monument to the North Korean soldiers who fought in Kursk would be erected in Pyongyang to honour their “heroism and bravery”, KCNA quoted Kim as saying.

On Saturday, the Kremlin announced that the Russian military had expelled Ukrainian soldiers from the final border village in the Kursk region, thereby ending Kyiv’s eight-month foothold on Russian territory.

Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov confirmed the presence of North Korean soldiers in the region in a call with Putin, stating that they had provided “significant assistance” to Russian troops.

Until then, there had been no formal confirmation from either Moscow or Pyongyang that North Korean soldiers were fighting for the Russian military, despite Western intelligence reports that some 14,000 North Korean troops had been deployed to Kursk.

Kyiv later denied its forces had been expelled from the region and dismissed Russia’s claims as a “propaganda ploy”, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stressing on Sunday that Ukrainian units were still operating in Kursk and the neighbouring Belgorod region.