Putin thanks North Korea for troop deployment and promises not to forget
their sacrifices
[April 28, 2025]
By HYUNG-JIN KIM
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked North
Korea Monday for fighting alongside his troops against Ukrainian forces
and promised not to forget their sacrifices, hours after North Korea
confirmed its deployment for the first time.
The back-to-back Russian and North Korean statements — which illustrate
their expanding military partnerships — came two days after Russia said
its troops have fully reclaimed the Kursk region that Ukrainian forces
seized in a surprise incursion last year.
Ukrainian officials have denied the claim, insisting that the operation
in certain areas of Kursk is continuing.
In a statement posted on the website of the Kremlin, Putin praised North
Korean soldiers who he said "shoulder to shoulder with Russian fighters,
defended our Motherland as their own.”
“The Russian people will never forget the heroism of the DPRK special
forces. We will always honor the heroes who gave their lives for Russia,
for our common freedom, fighting side by side with their Russian
brothers in arms,” Putin said, using the acronym for the North's
official name.
North Korea's first official confirmation of its troops involvement
Earlier Monday, North Korea's Central Military Commission announced that
leader Kim Jong Un had decided to send troops to Russia to “annihilate
and wipe out the Ukrainian neo-Nazi occupiers and liberate the Kursk
area in cooperation with the Russian armed forces.” The commission said
North Korean troops eventually made “an important contribution” to
Russia retrieving the border territory.
It was North Korea's first official confirmation of its troops'
deployment to Russia though it has repeatedly expressed its unwavering
support of Russia's fighting against Ukraine. U.S., South Korean and
Ukraine intelligence officials have said North Korea dispatched
10,000-12,000 troops to Russia last fall in its first participation in a
major armed conflict since the 1950-53 Korean War.
Both Putin and Kim said the North Korean deployment was made under a
mutual defense treaty that they had signed in June 2024. The treaty —
considered the two countries’ biggest defense agreement since the end of
the Cold War — requires both nations to use all available means to
provide immediate military assistance if either is attacked.
North Korea and Russia, locked in separate disputes with the U.S. and
its allies, have moved significantly closer to each other in recent
years.
Beside its dispatch of troops, North Korea has been supplying a vast
amount of conventional weapons to Russia. South Korea and the U.S. worry
that Russia could reward North Korea by transferring high-tech weapons
technologies that can enhance its nuclear weapons program as well as
other military and economic assistance.
Pyongyang wants military technologies from Russia
Kim’s underscoring of North Korea’s role in the retaking of the Kursk
region implies his urgent wish to get what he wants from Russia, namely
its sensitive military technologies and a solid security commitment to
North Korea, said Moon Seong Mook, an analyst for the Seoul-based Korea
Research Institute for National Strategy.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that Russia can provide
unspecified military assistance to North Korea if necessary, in
accordance with the defense treaty, according to Russian state media
agencies.
While Russia’s claimed recapture of the Kursk region could deprive North
Korea of legitimate grounds to maintain its troops in Russia, Moon said
that North Korea won't likely pull out its troops from Russia anytime
soon as the war is still going on. Moon said that North Korea could
provide support to Russian forces in other regions in a different and
covert manner.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and North Korea's leader Kim
Jong Un pose for a photo during a signing ceremony of a new
partnership in Pyongyang, North Korea, June 19, 2024. (Kristina
Kormilitsyna, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)
Kim Yeol Soo, an expert at South Korea’s Korea Institute for
Military Affairs, said North Korea also likely acknowledged its
troops’ dispatch because it couldn’t hide it any longer and so
determined to use it as a propaganda tool to boost internal unity.
He said the North Korean announcement could also signal a prelude to
Kim visiting Russia to attend ceremonies marking the May 9 Victory
Day.
Neither North Korea nor Russia said how many North Korean soldiers
eventually came to Russia or how many casualties they suffered. But
in March, South Korea’s military assessed that around 4,000 North
Korean soldiers had been killed or wounded in the Russia-Ukraine war
fronts. the South Korean military also said at the time that North
Korea sent about 3,000 additional troops to Russia earlier this
year.
Kim Jong Un said that a monument will soon be erected in Pyongyang
to mark North Korea’s battle feats and that flowers will be laid
before the tombstones of the fallen soldiers. Kim said the
government must take steps to preferentially treat and take care of
the families of the soldiers who took part in the war.
North Korean soldiers are highly disciplined and well trained, but
observers say they’ve become easy targets for drone and artillery
attacks on Russian-Ukraine battlefields due to their lack of combat
experience and unfamiliarity with the terrain. Still, Ukrainian
military and intelligence officials have assessed that the North
Koreans gained crucial battlefield experience and have been key to
Russia’s strategy of overwhelming Ukraine by throwing large numbers
of soldiers into the battle for Kursk.
South Korea calls for North's immediate withdrawal from Russia
South Korea’s Unification Ministry on Monday urged North Korea to
withdraw its troops from Russia immediately, saying the North’s
support of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine poses a grave
provocation to international security. Spokesperson Koo Byoungsam
also called the North’s troops’ deployment “an act against humanity”
that has sacrificed young North Korean soldiers for their
government.
In a Kremlin meeting Saturday, Valery Gerasimov, chief of the
general staff for Russia’s armed forces, informed Putin of Russia’s
regaining of the Kursk region. Gerasimov was first to confirm that
North Korean soldiers fought alongside Russia to repel Ukrainian
troops from the Kursk region and “demonstrated high professionalism,
showed fortitude, courage and heroism in battle.”
If confirmed, Russia’s victory in Kursk would deprive Ukraine of key
leverage in U.S.-brokered efforts to negotiate an end to the more
than 3-year-old war by exchanging its gains for some Russia-occupied
land in Ukraine.
President Donald Trump said Saturday he doubts Putin wants to end
the war, expressing new skepticism a peace deal can be reached soon.
Only a day earlier, Trump had said Ukraine and Russia were “ very
close to a deal.”
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Associated Press writer Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia
contributed to this report.
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