'Defender our Motherland as their own': Vladimir Putin hails North Korean troops for participating in Ukraine war

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday "thanked" North Korean troops for fighting Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk region, after Pyongyang confirmed for the first time it deployed its military personnel in Russia. Putin's statement also follows Moscow's earlier confirmation of North Korean soldiers' participation in the Ukraine war.

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"North Korean fighters, shoulder to shoulder with Russian fighters, defended our Motherland as their own," a Kremlin press release quoted Putin as saying.

According to the US, South Korean and Ukraine intelligence officials, North Korea dispatched 10,000-12,000 troops to Russia last fall to participate in the conflict, its first such engagement since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. However, Pyongyang hadn't confirmed or denied its reported troop deployments to Russia until Monday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un decided to send the combat troops to Russia under a mutual defence treaty he and Putin signed in June 2024, the North's Central Military Commission said in a statement carried by state media. The treaty, considered the biggest 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 if either is attacked.

The statement cited Kim as saying the 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 honor of the motherland," Kim said.

Kim also promised to erect a monument in Pyongyang to mark North Korea's "battle feats." He said flowers will be laid before the tombstones of the fallen soldiers. Kim also assured steps would be taken to preferentially treat and take care of the families of the soldiers who took part in the war.

The North Korean statement didn't mention the final number of troops Pyongyang eventually sent and how many of them had died. But in March, South Korea's military stated that around 4,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed or wounded in the Russia-Ukraine 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.

(With AP inputs)