In a statement provided to North Korea’s state media, the North’s Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers’ Party said leader Kim Jong Un had decided to send combat troops to Russia under a mutual defence treaty.
It cited Kim as saying that the troops’ deployment was meant to “annihilate and wipe out the Ukrainian neo-Nazi occupiers and liberate the Kursk area in cooperation with the Russian armed forces”.
“They who fought for justice are all heroes and representatives of the honour of the motherland,” Kim said, according to the statement.
In February, South Korea’s spy agency said North Korea appears to have sent additional troops to Russia, after its soldiers deployed on the Russian-Ukraine fronts suffered heavy casualties.
In January, the NIS said about 300 North Korean soldiers had died and another 2,700 had been injured. Zelenskyy earlier put the number of killed or wounded North Koreans at 4,000, though US estimates were lower at around 1,200. (AP) SZM