North Korea confirms deployment of troops to Russia's Kursk
North Korea has officially acknowledged for the first time that it has deployed troops to assist Russia in its conflict with Ukraine.
According state-run media outlet KCNA, North Korean soldiers were involved in operations to help Russia recapture territory in the Kursk region, which borders Ukraine, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
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.
"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".
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.
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