Putin thanks North Korean troops for their collaboration in the defence of the Kursk region
The leaders of North Korea and Russia signed an agreement on Wednesday that deepens their military cooperation and includes a mutual defense commitment to help each other if they are attacked, an agreement that Kim Jong-un described as an «alliance.»
The leaders of North Korea and Russia signed an agreement on Wednesday that deepens their military cooperation and includes a mutual defense commitment to help each other if they are attacked, an agreement that Kim Jong-un described as an «alliance.»
Kim spoke at a rare news conference after his meeting with President Vladimir Putin in Pyongyang, announcing the signing of a «comprehensive strategic partnership» that the Russian leader said includes defensive elements.
«The comprehensive association agreement signed today provides, among other things, for mutual assistance in the event of aggression against one of the parties to this agreement,» Putin said, making his first visit to North Korea in 24 years.
Putin’s visit, which is likely to reshape decades of relations between Russia and North Korea at a time when both are facing international isolation, is being closely watched by Seoul and Washington, which have expressed concerns about their growing military ties.
The reaction of China, the North’s main political and economic benefactor and an increasingly important ally for Moscow, has been muted.
Kim said the pact will expand cooperation in the fields of politics, economy and defense, calling it «strictly pacifist and defensive.»
Relations between our two countries have been elevated to the new top level of an alliance,» Kim said.
Putin’s statement came shortly after North Korea confirmed it sent troops to Russia to help in its war against Ukraine. Russia confirmed for the first time on Saturday the participation of North Korean soldiers in the battle in the Kursk region, where Kiev’s troops seized parts of the territory in August 2024.
U.S., South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence officials have said North Korea deployed between 10,000 and 12,000 troops to Russia last fall, in its first involvement in a full-scale armed conflict since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.
However, it was not until Monday that Pyongyang confirmed the sending of troops. The announcement came two days after Russia reported that they had fully recaptured the Kursk region. Ukrainian officials denied this. North Korean President Kim Jong-un has decided to send combat troops to Russia as part of a mutual defense treaty he signed with Putin in June 2024, North Korea’s Central Military Commission said in a statement broadcast on state media.
The treaty, billed as the largest defense agreement between the two countries since the end of the Cold War, requires both nations to use all available means to provide immediate military assistance in the event that either of them is attacked.
According to the statement, Kim said the deployment was aimed at «annihilating the Ukrainian neo-Nazi occupiers and liberating the region in collaboration with the Russian armed forces.»
«All of them, who fought for justice, are heroes and representatives of the honor of the motherland,» Kim added.
Kim said a monument will soon be erected in Pyongyang to commemorate North Korea’s battle exploits and flowers will be placed in front of the tombstones of fallen soldiers. He said the government should take steps to give preference to the treatment and care of the families of soldiers who participated in the war.
The North Korean statement did not specify the number of soldiers who were eventually deployed, nor how many of them were killed. But the South Korean military said last month that about 4,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed or wounded on the war fronts. The South Korean military also assessed at the time that North Korea sent about 3,000 additional troops to Russia earlier this year.
North Korean soldiers are highly disciplined and well-trained, but analysts say they have become easy targets for drone and artillery strikes because of their lack of combat experience and lack of knowledge of the terrain. Still, Ukrainian military and intelligence officials have assessed that the North Koreans gained crucial battlefield experience and have been key to Russia’s strategy of overwhelming Ukraine with large numbers of troops in the battle for Kursk. South Korea’s Unification Ministry on Monday urged North Korea to withdraw its troops from Russia immediately, saying the North’s support for Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine represents a serious provocation to international security.
Spokesman Koo Byoungsam also called the North’s troop deployment «an act against humanity» that has sacrificed young North Korean soldiers for their government.
During a meeting on Saturday in the Kremlin, Valery Gerasimov, chief of the General Staff of Russia’s armed forces, briefed Putin on the recovery of the Kursk region. Gerasimov also confirmed that the North Koreans fought alongside Russia to expel Ukrainian troops from the region and «demonstrated high professionalism, showed strength, bravery and heroism in battle.»