The communist government of North Korea confirmed on Monday that it had sent troops to fight against Ukrainian forces in Kursk, Russia, a border region that Ukraine attacked in August 2024 after two years of Russian invasion.
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the flagship propaganda outlet of the North Korean government, claimed that the country’s forces were pivotal in the alleged expulsion of Ukrainian forces from Kursk and claimed that Pyongyang’s cooperation with Moscow opened a “new chapter in history” between the two countries. The confirmation followed a statement from the Kremlin claiming that Russia had “liberated” Kursk from Ukrainian control and commending North Korea’s role in that operation; the Ukrainian government has since denied that it is operating in the region.
For most of its existence in its modern state, North Korea has relied almost exclusively on communist China for military and economic support. Current dictator Kim Jong-un has realigned North Korea away from China towards Russia, most significantly signing a mutual defense treaty last year that immediately preceded the first reports of North Korean forces fighting Ukraine.
KCNA did not explain to its audience that Ukraine’s presence in Kursk was a response to Russia launching a full invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and annexing five Ukrainian territories in the past 12 years: Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Crimea. It instead described the Kursk operation as a “sinister intention to reverse the war situation” and an “adventurous invasion” without specifics.
The North Korean military, it explained, were “performing heroic feats in the operations to repulse and annihilate the grave sovereignty infringement by the Ukrainian authorities, who invaded the territory of the Russian Federation, and completely liberate the occupied area of Kursk Region.”
“The sub-units of our armed forces… fully demonstrated their high fighting spirit and military temperament and made an important contribution to annihilating the Ukrainian neo-Nazi forces,” KCNA continued, “and liberating the territory of the Russian Federation by displaying mass heroism, matchless bravery, and self-sacrificing spirit.”
Kim Jong-un issued a personal statement celebrating the “heroism and bravery” of his forces in aiding the Ukraine invasion and announced that his government, presiding over a populace regularly on the brink of starvation, would spend money to build a “monument to the battle feats… in our capital city, and flowers of praying for immortality given by the motherland and the people will be placed before the tombstones of the fallen soldiers.”
“The fighting spirit and heroism of the soldiers who demonstrated the great name of the strong and the glory of the victors will shine long in the high platform of respect and honor generation after generation,” Kim proclaimed. “The motherland should hand down forever the soul of them who fought to defend the great honor 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.”
North Korea’s media arm did not offer any specifics on the scope of the country’s participation in the Ukraine war, including any estimates on the number of troops involved, what they did there, or casualties. The KCNA report did hint at some deaths, expressing appreciation that the troops were “shedding blood” with the Russians “in the same trench shoulder to shoulder.”
Pyongyang also bizarrely took the opportunity of the announcement to claim that its operations alongside Russia “fully conform to all the provisions and the spirit of the U.N. Charter and other international laws.” North Korea is one of the world’s most violent and repressive totalitarian regimes, regularly violating international law and especially United Nations provisions on nuclear weapons development, in addition to human rights norms on free speech, freedom of religion, and other basic civil rights.
Russian strongman Vladimir Putin issued a statement on the same day confirming that North Korea participated in fighting in Kursk and thanking Kim for his support.
“Units of the Korean People’s Army played an active role in the fight that brought the defeat of the neo-Nazi formations of the Kiev regime that invaded our territory,” Putin claimed, “in full compliance with international law and in accordance with the letter and spirit of the Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the Russian Federation and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea of June 19, 2024.”
Putin’s initial public reasoning for invading Russia was the claiming that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, elected in a free and democratic election as the “pro-Russian” candidate in 2019, was a Nazi. Zelensky, one of the world’s few Jewish heads of state, has vehemently denied any Nazi affiliations.
“The Russian people will never forget the heroism of the DPRK special forces. We will always honor the heroes who gave their lives for Russia, for our common freedom, fighting side by side with their Russian brothers in arms,” Putin promised.
The Kremlin separately confirmed to reporters on Monday that Russian forces would similarly support North Korean military operations if asked, as part of the mutual defense agreement that led North Korean forces to Kursk.
“Well, there is a treaty between us, and in this treaty both sides committed themselves to provide substantial assistance to each other,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Both Ukrainian and South Korean intelligence operations have estimated that up to 12,000 North Korean troops were fighting against the Ukrainians in Kursk and elsewhere. Zelensky publicly estimated that 10,000 North Korean troops were in the Ukrainian war theater in October. In January, the president announced that Ukraine had captured two North Korean soldiers, publishing video of interviews with them.
One of the North Korean soldiers reportedly stated that he did not know where he was and that his government had told him he was traveling for military training, not to fight in an active war zone. The soldiers were reportedly captured fighting in Kursk.
Kyiv denied on Sunday that Russia had retaken all of Kursk, claiming that its special operations forces had successfully captured two Russian prisoners of war.
“Left the Kursk region? We haven’t heard about it,” the Special Operation Forces said in a statement.
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