\n\t\t\t\t\tLeader Kim Jong-un gave the order to send troops under the strategic partnership treaty signed with Putin last year, state media said\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n
North Korea <\/a>has confirmed for the first time it has sent troops to fight for Russia <\/a>in the war against Ukraine under the order of leader Kim Jong-un.<\/p>\n State media also claimed the nation\u2019s soldiers had made an important contribution to the liberation of Russian territory occupied by Ukraine.<\/p>\n The victorious end of the battle to liberate Russia\u2019s Kursk region showed the \u201chighest strategic level of the firm militant friendship\u201d between North Korea and Russia, KCNA state news agency cited the North\u2019s ruling party as saying.<\/p>\n Russia said last week Ukrainian forces had been expelled from the last Russian village they had been holding, although Kyiv denied the claim and said their troops were still operating in Belgorod, another Russian region bordering Ukraine.<\/p>\n The Central Military Commission of the North\u2019s ruling Workers\u2019 Party said leader Kim Jong-un made the decision to deploy troops under the comprehensive strategic partnership treaty he signed with Putin last year.<\/p>\n \u201cUnder the order of the head of state, the sub-units of the armed forces of the Republic regarded the territory of Russia as the one of their country and proved the firm alliance between the two countries,\u201d KCNA cited the Commission as saying.<\/p>\n \u201cThey who fought for justice are all heroes and representatives of the honour of the motherland,\u201d KCNA quoted Kim as saying.<\/p>\n North Korea \u201cregards it as an honor to have an alliance with such a powerful state as the Russian Federation,\u201d KCNA said.<\/p>\n Ukrainian officials have estimated that North Korea has sent around 14,000 troops, including 3,000 reinforcements to replace its losses.<\/p>\n Lacking armoured vehicles and drone warfare experience, they took heavy casualties but adapted quickly.<\/p>\n Russia confirmed on Saturday for the first time that North Korean soldiers have been fighting alongside Russians in Kursk.<\/p>\n In January, Ukrainian forces captured two North Korean soldiers<\/a> in\u00a0Russia\u2019s Kursk region,\u00a0Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a> said.<\/p>\n Neither Russia nor North Korea had previously either confirmed or denied the deployment.<\/p>\n With agencies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leader Kim Jong-un gave the order to send troops under the strategic partnership treaty signed with Putin last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[29515,6660,332,7661,657],"class_list":{"0":"post-55890","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-kim-jong-un","9":"tag-north-korea","10":"tag-russia","11":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","12":"tag-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114412341381460090","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}