North Korea confirms deployment of troops to Russia's Kursk Region, hails soldiers as heroes

North Korean soldiers participate in a commemorative march honoring the spirit of North Korea's anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters, held in Pyongyang on Apr. 25.Courtesy of KCNA/YONHAP

SEOUL, April 28 (AJP) - North Korea has publicly confirmed for the first time that its troops are operating in Russia’s Kursk Region, a front-line area in the ongoing war against Ukraine. In a statement issued Monday, Pyongyang hailed its deployed forces as “heroes,” ending more than a year of silence amid international speculation over its involvement.

Intelligence agencies in the United States and South Korea reported last year that thousands of North Korean soldiers had moved into the Kursk Region following the signing of the Russo-North Korea Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in June 2024. Those reports were followed by accounts of North Korean casualties and prisoners of war. Moscow dismissed the claims as “fake news,” while Pyongyang remained silent, until now.

In a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), North Korea’s Central Military Commission praised its forces for “performing heroic feats in the operations to repulse and annihilate the grave sovereignty infringement by the Ukrainian authorities” and for helping to “completely liberate the occupied area of Kursk Region.”

The announcement came one day after the Russian military claimed it had regained full control of the western Kursk area, declaring that the last Ukrainian-held village had been retaken. Kyiv rejected Moscow’s account, insisting that Ukrainian forces remain active along parts of the Russian border.

According to the KCNA report, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered a monument to be erected in Pyongyang to commemorate the battle in Kursk, with "flowers of immortality" to be placed before the graves of fallen North Korean soldiers.

The North’s Central Military Commission described the deployment as a demonstration of the "highest strategic level of the firm militant friendship" between Pyongyang and Moscow. It asserted that all activities were conducted in accordance with the mutual defense treaty signed with Russia and were consistent with the United Nations Charter and international law.