TYRANT Kim Jong-un has confirmed for the first time that North Korean troops were sent to fight alongside the Russians against Ukraine.
Pyongyang’s state TV and Kim’s propaganda machine KCNA reported that North Korean soldiers made an “important contribution” to help the Russians flush out Kyiv’s troops from Kursk.
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It said Kim deployed “sub-units of our armed forces” to Russia as part of a treaty with Moscow.
The troops “participated in the operations for liberating the Kursk areas,” the report added.
North Korea “regards it as an honor to have an alliance with such a powerful state as the Russian Federation,” KCNA said.
It added: “Under the order of the head of state, the sub-units of the armed forces of the Republic regarded the territory of Russia as one of their country and proved the firm alliance between the two countries.”
North Korean troops in Kursk
It comes just a day after Russia claimed it had taken Kursk back from Ukraine after flushing out all of Kyiv’s troops from the region.
It was also the first time Russia acknowledged North Korean troops were on the front lines and credited their role in helping Moscow regain Kursk.
Valery Gerasimov, the Russian chief of general staff, told Vladimir Putin: “I want to point out the participation of servicemen from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in the liberation of the Kursk Region’s border areas, who, in accordance with the Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between our countries, provided significant assistance in defeating the invading group of the Ukrainian armed forces.
“Soldiers and officers of the Korean People’s Army, carrying out combat missions shoulder to shoulder with Russian servicemen, displayed high professionalism, fortitude, courage and heroism in repulsing the Ukrainian invasion.”
North Korea sent an estimated total of 14,000 troops, including 3,000 reinforcements to replace its losses, according to Ukrainian officials.
Lacking armoured vehicles and drone warfare experience, they took heavy casualties but adapted quickly.
Pyongyang also reportedly dispatched ballistic missiles, long-range artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems.
State media quotes Kim Jong Un as saying: “They who fought for justice are all heroes and representatives of the honour of the motherland.”
In January, Ukraine claimed to have captured two North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region.
They were among the first 11,000 of Kim’s troops drafted into Putin’s illegal war after the pariah pair sealed a pact to unite against the West.
The military card of one of the captured men shows that the Russians gave the North Koreans fake identities with the pretence that they were from a remote region of Siberia.
One of the captives was given a false Russian identity of Antonin Ayasovich Arankyn, born 03.10.1998 in the republic of Tuva.
His document shows him to be single, with secondary higher education and the profession of a tailor.
The ID was issued by the Military Commissariat of the Pyi-Khemsky district, of Tuva, a mountainous Russian republic bordering Mongolia.
The other had no documents.
The SBU believes the pair are North Koreans after saying that the captive soldiers do not speak Ukrainian, English or Russian.
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The soldier with the Russian identity said this was issued to him when he was brought to fight in the war.
The SBU stated: “During interrogation, the DPRK [North Korean] soldier who was found with the ticket [ID document] told SBU officers that this was issued to him in Russia in the autumn of 2024.
“At that time, according to him, part of the North Korean combat units underwent coordination with Russian groups for one week.
“One of them was born in 2005, held the position of a shooter and served in the military in North Korea since 2021.
“The other was born in 1999, and has served in the DPRK army since 2016 as a reconnaissance sniper.”
Images have shown a line of dead North Korean troops laid out in the snow moments after they joined the fight on the front lines.
Numerous reports have shown a disturbing pattern beginning to emerge of North Korean troops being sent out on suicide missions on behalf of Russia.
Footage emerged recently of Kim Jong-un’s fighters being sent to jog through snowy no-man’s-land and fatally soak up Ukrainian ammo.
Inside North Korea’s elite Storm Corp special forces
By James Halpin, Foreign News Reporter
KIM Jong-un has sent his special forces soldiers to fight in Ukraine – known as the Storm Corps.
Storm Corps is made of 10 units, including a snipers unit, a light infantry unit, and a paratroopers unit, according to Lee HyunSeung.
Lee shot down the suggestion of whether they would be comparable to Western special forces.
He said North Korea didn’t have the equipment to continually train troops for combat as ammunition and bombs would need replacing.
Instead, they trained “for show” so they could march in parades or for propaganda videos.
Lee said those soldiers are drawn from North Korea’s working class and will be ambivalent about fighting for the regime.
He said: “They are just seeking food and then they’re seeking career advancement.”I’m sure nowadays, these, you know, young soldiers they don’t have like a real loyalty to the regime.
“They just got order command from the Supreme Commander, and then they have no choice but to, you know, move to Russia.”
Meanwhile, on a battlefield in Kursk, some two dozen men thought to be North Korean fighters were seen huddled together before jogging out towards enemy lines.
Ukrainian veteran Vitaliy, 35, told The Times it was “like a dream for our mortars and machine gunners”.
Other reports tell of North Korean soldiers and officials turning on their own people.
Troops were reportedly executing their own wounded comrades to prevent them from being captured by Ukraine.
One North Korean soldier killed on the front lines was allegedly sent there for betraying Kim Jong Un, according to his recovered diary.
Zelensky previously said: “We can see that the Russian military and the North Korean enforcers have no interest in the survival of these Koreans at all.
“Everything is arranged in a way that makes it impossible for us to capture the Koreans as prisoners.
“Their own people are executing them, there are such cases.
“And the Russians send them into assaults with minimal protection.”
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