London – North Korean authorities first confirmed that the country’s forces fought against Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region of Russia, with the state media that claim “victory” there and described the North Korean soldiers involved as “heroic.”
The official recognition occurred when the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, also praised the troops of North Korea for his contribution in the theater, saying in a statement published on the Kremlin website that the “Korean friends” fought “with honor and value, covering themselves with an infallible 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 by Russia, for our common freedom, on equal terms with their Russian brothers in arms.”
In a statement carried by the Korean Korean news agency, the Central Military Commission of North Korea confirmed on Monday that its troops participated in the Russian operation to expel Kursk’s Ukrainian units.
In this image made of a video distributed by the press service of the Ministry of Defense of Russia on March 14, 2025, Russian soldiers travel in a self -propelled weapon in the Kursk region of Russia.
AP
The fight broke out there after kyiv’s forces entered the border region in a surprise offensive in August 2024. It was the largest Ukrainian operation in Russian territory since Moscow launched its large -scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The Military Commission praised the North Korean units fighting in Kursk for “carrying out heroic feats in operations to reject and frustrate the violation of the serious sovereignty of the Ukrainian authorities.”
This weekend, the main Russian commander Valery Gerasimov said that Russia had completely released Kursk after months of intensifying the assaults in the remaining Ukrainian positions there. Gerasimov praised the units of North Korea for “significant assistance.”
The North Korea committee said that the participation of its soldiers, which according to several United States, Ukraine and South Korea assistance involved at least 10,000 troops, “completely demonstrated its high spirit of struggle and military temperament”, with “mass heroism, unique courage and self-shaped spirit.”
In a statement carried by Kcna, North Korean leader Kim Jong said that the fighters in Kursk were “heroes” who “fought for justice.” A Kursk contingent monument would erect in Pyongyang, Kim added.
“The homeland must convey forever the soul of the soldiers who fought to defend their great honor and take important state measures to treat and take care of the families of the brave soldiers who participated in the war,” Kim continued.
The North Korean units that enter the fight in Kursk quickly held casualties, according to the estimates of governments aligned in Ukraine.
British intelligence evaluated that in March approximately 5,000 North Korean troops from the North deployed to fight Ukraine had been killed or injured, with a probably murdered third.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, listens to the Chief of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, with a report on the fight in the Kursk region during a videoconference call in Moscow, Russia, on April 26, 2025.
Alexander Kazakov/AP
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Kyrylo Budanov, the head of the military intelligence of Ukraine, both said in February that North Korea’s troops had suffered around 4,000 victims.
The South Korean National Intelligence Service said in March that the North Korean forces had suffered around 5,000 victims, according to the Yonhap news agency, the state media of South Korea.
ABC News’ Will Gretsky contributed to this report.
