Putin says North Korean 'friends' helped Russia push Ukraine out of Kursk
LONDON -- North Korean authorities confirmed for the first time that the country's forces fought against Ukrainian troops in Russia's Kursk region, with state media claiming "victory" there and describing the North Korean soldiers involved as "heroic."
The official acknowledgment came as Russian President Vladimir Putin also praised North Korean troops for their contribution in the theater, saying in a statement posted to the Kremlin website that Moscow's "Korean friends" fought "with honor and valor, covering themselves with unfading glory."
"The Russian people will never forget the feat of the Korean special forces," Putin added. "We will always honor the Korean heroes who gave their lives for Russia, for our common freedom, on an equal basis with their Russian brothers in arms."
In a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, North Korea's Central Military Commission confirmed Monday its troops took part in the Russian operation to eject Ukrainian units from Kursk.
Fighting erupted there after Kyiv's forces entered the border region in a surprise offensive in August 2024. It was the largest Ukrainian operation on Russian territory since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The military commission lauded North Korean units fighting in Kursk for "performing heroic feats in the operations to repulse and frustrate the grave sovereignty infringement by the Ukrainian authorities."
This weekend, top Russian commander Valery Gerasimov said Russia had fully liberated Kursk after months of intensifying assaults on remaining Ukrainian positions there. Gerasimov praised North Korea units for "significant assistance."
The North Korean committee said the involvement of its soldiers -- which according to various U.S., Ukrainian and South Korean assistance involved at least 10,000 troops -- "fully demonstrated their high fighting spirit and military temperament," with "mass heroism, matchless bravery and self-sacrificing spirit."
In a statement carried by KCNA, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said fighters in Kursk were "heroes" who "fought for justice." A monument to the Kursk contingent would be erected in Pyongyang, Kim added.
"The motherland should hand down forever the soul of the soldiers who fought to defend its great honour and take important state measures to specially and preferentially treat and take care of the families of the brave soldiers who participated in the war," Kim continued.
North Korean units entering the fighting in Kursk quickly sustained casualties, according to estimates by Ukraine-aligned governments.
British intelligence assessed that by March roughly 5,000 North Korean troops deployed to fight Ukraine had been killed or wounded, with a third likely killed.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Kyrylo Budanov -- the head of Ukraine's military intelligence -- both said in February that North Korean troops had suffered about 4,000 casualties.
South Korea's National Intelligence Service said in March that North Korean forces had suffered around 5,000 casualties, according to the Yonhap news agency, South Korea's state media.
ABC News' Will Gretsky contributed to this report.
