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The US has called for an end to North Korea’s military deployment to support Russian president Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine as Kim Jong Un confirmed he sent his troops to fight in Europe.
North Korea’s supreme leader said he ordered deployment of combat troops to Russia under a mutual defence treaty he signed with Mr Putin in June 2024, which called on both nations to use all available means to provide immediate military assistance if either is attacked.
“We continue to be concerned by (North Korea’s) direct involvement in the war. (North Korea’s) military deployment to Russia and any support provided by the Russian Federation to (North Korea) in return must end,” a US State Department spokesperson said in an email on Monday.
Third countries such as North Korea, whose support has "perpetuated the Russia-Ukraine war, bear responsibility", the spokesperson said.
Mr Kim’s remarks on Monday – the rare first such admission of participating in a war against Ukraine – were published in North Korea’s state media which cited the North Central Military Commission and hailed the North Korean troops who fought alongside Russian forces as “heroes”.
“They who fought for justice are all heroes and representatives of the honour of the motherland,” Mr Kim said.
He also reiterated the Russian claims and said the military deployment from North Korea was meant to “annihilate and wipe out the Ukrainian neo-Nazi occupiers and liberate the Kursk area in cooperation with the Russian armed forces”.
North Korean troops are believed to have fought in Russia’s Kursk to expel Ukrainian forces who launched a surprise incursion into the Russian territory in August last year.
The North Korean leader did not mention how many troops were sent to fight the war and how many of them have died. But he vowed that the North Korean regime will honour its dead soldiers by erecting a monument in Pyongyang to mark the battle feats and flowers will be laid before the tombstones of the fallen soldiers.
Mr Kim said the government must take steps to preferentially treat and take care of the families of the soldiers who participated in the war.
While neither North Korea nor Russia have disclosed the total number of North Korean soldiers who fought alongside Russian forces in Kursk, the intelligence estimates from the US, South Korea and Ukraine state that North Korea dispatched about 10,000-12,000 troops to Russia last fall in its first participation in a major armed conflict since the end of the Korean war in 1953.
In March, South Korea said that around 4,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed or wounded in the conflict. An additional 3,000 troops were also dispatched to Russia earlier this year, the South Korean military assessed.
The North Korean soldiers believed to have fought under the treaty signed between Mr Kim and Mr Putin in June 2024 which was seen as their biggest such defence agreement since the end of the Cold War.
The latest confirmation of North Korea’s participation in the biggest armed conflict in Europe since the Second World War comes just two days after Mr Putin also confirmed the North Korean involvement in the war.
South Korea has said the confirmation from Mr Kim is an "admission of criminal act” and condemned the North’s “inhumane and immoral” decision.
"With their public admission of the deployment, while claiming they are fully in accordance with international law, they are once again mocking the international community. We strongly condemn this action," South Korea’s foreign ministry said on Monday.
"The dispatch of the North Korean troops, along with broader military cooperation between Russia and North Korea, constitutes a grave violation of international norms, including the UN Charter, and UN Security Council resolutions," it said.
The North’s troops’ deployment is “an act against humanity” that has sacrificed young North Korean soldiers for their government, spokesperson Koo Byoungsam said.
South Korea’s unification ministry on Monday urged the North to withdraw its troops from Russia immediately, saying the North's support of Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine poses a grave provocation to international security.
The West and its allies in East Asia have warned against North Korea’s involvement in the war, as they caution that the increasingly nuclear-armed hermit kingdom is gaining battlefield experience despite being internationally isolated.
While North Korean soldiers are seen to be highly disciplined and well trained, they have become easy targets for drone and artillery attacks on the Ukraine battlefield due to their lack of combat experience and unfamiliarity with the terrain.
The experience on the Ukraine war front could also enable North Korean soldiers to learn battlefield lessons against Nato machinery.
According to the Ukrainian military and intelligence officials, North Koreans have gained crucial battlefield experience and have been key to Russia’s strategy of overwhelming Ukraine by throwing large number of soldiers into the battle for Kursk.
English (US) ·