On Monday, April 28th, North Korea confirmed for the first time that their troops were fighting alongside Russia in its war against Ukraine, saying they helped Moscow take back control of its Ukraine- controlled Kursk region. North Korea had sent as many as 12,000 troops to Russia in the fall to fight in Kursk, which Ukrainian forces seized in a surprise incursion in August, which North Korea has not confirmed or denied those reports until now.
The North Korean report came out two days after Russia had said that it had recaptured Kursk with the help of North Korean soldiers, which was the first confirmation of the presence in the war. Ukraine has rejected that Kursk had been captured, saying that its defensive operations are still continuing in some areas. In a NBC News article written by and Putin was reported saying,”Putin said North Korea ‘acted on a sense of solidarity, justice and genuine comradeship.We highly appreciate this and are sincerely grateful personally’ to Kim, his leadership team and the people of North Korea. (Kim and Aggarwal, April 28th).
The decision to deploy troops was in accordance to a mutual defense treaty between Moscow and Pyongyang which was signed in June 2024. According to a BBC article written by Joel Guinto, “‘They who fought for justice are all heroes and representatives of the honour of the motherland,’ Kim said according to KCNA” (Guinto, April 27th).
Military experts have said that North Korean troops, reportedly from an elite unit called the Storm Corps, are unprepared for the realities of modern warfare. A former British tank commander, Col Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, said in the BBC news article by Guinto, “‘These are barely trained troops led by Russian officers who they don’t understand'” (Guinto, April 27th). Despite this, Ukrainian top military commander Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi had said that North Korean soldiers had caused significant problems for Ukrainian fighters on the front lines due to the sheer amount of them.
