SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea has confirmed for the first time that it has dispatched troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine.
U.S., South Korean and Ukraine intelligence officials have said North Korea last fall sent about 10,000-12,000 troops to Russia. But North Korea hadn’t until Monday confirmed its troops’ movements.
North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said leader Kim Jong Un decided to send combat troops to Russia under a mutual defense 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.”