Russia’s Putin Thanks Kim for North Korean Troops Fighting in Kursk

For months, Moscow and Pyongyang had been lazy about the deployment of North Korean troops in the Russian war against Ukraine, just after kyiv publicly paraded two North Korean soldiers who had captured their forces.

Then, in consecutive statements, the leaders of the two countries confirmed that North Korea’s troops have bone fighting the shoulder with that of Russia, saying that they had helped to release the border region of Kursk from the Ukrainian forces.

Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader said he had sent troops to Russia to boost his military alliance, praising his “heroism and courage,” the state media of the country said on Monday. Mr. Kim ordered that a monument be built for the soldiers killed in Russia, as if to remind President Vladimir V. Putin of the debt it owed.

Putin said on Monday that the Russian people would never forget the feats of the Special Forces of North Korea. “We will always honor the Korean heroes who gave their lives for Russia, for our freedom, along with their Russian brothers in arms,” ​​he said in a statement published on the Kremlin website.

The statements followed Russia’s first military assistance in North Korea’s military assistance on Saturday, even thought the alliance had been known for a long time. Officials from South Korea, Ukraine and the United States have said that up to 4000 North Korean troops have killed or injured while fighting Russia Sprot last year.

North Korea has sent 14,000 troops, mostly members of its special operations units, to Russia, including 3,000 sent earlier this year to replace those murdered or injured, according to South Korean officials. North Korea has also provided millions of artillery shells, as well as many ballistic missiles, which Russia has used to hit Ukrainian cities.

The sudden but coordinated revelation indicated that both Russia and North Korea were using their recently formed military alliance as negotiation leverage, analysts said.

When claiming the “complete release” or Kursk with the help of North Korea’s troops, Moscow was depriving Ukraine or a key negotiation chip in peace conversations. The continuous commitment of North Korea’s military aid also helps strengthen Russia’s negotiation power when the president of the United States, Donald J. Trump, is impatient for a peace agreement with Ashow and kyiv. On Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that Trump could abandon his attempts to negotiate an agreement if he does not see progress soon.

For North Korea, cementing a military alliance with Russia “at the expense of blood in combat shots” and keeping Mr. Putin belonged to Mr. Kim increases his own diplomatic leverage against Washington. Trump has said he wanted to communicate with Mr. Kim for a possible agreement on his nuclear weapons program.

“It is a beneficial strategy for the benefit of Russia and North Korea,” said Hong Min, an expert in North Korea at the National Unification Institute in Seoul.

On Saturday, General Valery V. Gerasimov, the main military commander of Russia, praised the troops of North Korea “” Fortaleza and Heroism “, since he affirmed the” complete liberation “or the border region of Kursk of Russia.

The Ukrainian army had surprised Russia in August attacking through the border and taking control of Kursk parts. But the Russians who defeated them after the arrival of North Korea’s troops at the end of last year. On Saturday, General Gerasimov said that Russia now controlled parts of the Adjacent Ukrainian region of Sumy also, Althehegh did not specialize if the North Koreans joined that operation.

Ukraine has played Russia’s claim to have resumed Kursk, insisting that his troops were still occupying positions there.

kyiv had hoped to use the land he had occupied in Kursk as a negotiation chip in peace conversations with Russia, which has established parts of the east and south of Ukraine since his offensive in 2022. President Volodyyr Zelensky of Ukraine met with Trump on the sidelines of Pope Francis’ funeral in the Vatican on Saturday by Saturday to a cease-to-cessation.

The state media of North Korea indicated that Mr. Kim first proposed to send troops to Russia under a mutual defense treaty that signed with Mr. Putin in Pyongyang last June. The decision “demonstrated the highest strategic level of firm militant friendship” between the two countries, he said.

“A monument to battle exploits will be erected in our capital city, and prayer flowers for the immortality given by the country and people will be placed before the tombstones of the fallen soldiers,” said Mr. Kim in the media of North Korea.

North Korea can send more troops to Russia in the future and expand the operations of their troops to deepen military ties and obtain greater rewards, said Doo Jin-Ho, senior analyst of the Institute of Defense Analysis of Korea in Seoul.

Officials from South Korea and the United States have said that they fear that North Korea receives financial assistance and assistance in Russian arms technologies in exchange for its troops deposit. This aid would help North Korea to resist the impact of international sanctions led by the United States and improve the capabilities of their military.