North Korea confirmed for the first time today that it had sent troops to fight for Russia in the war in Ukraine under orders from leader Kim Jong-un and that it had helped regain control of “Russian territory occupied by Ukraine.”
The victorious end of the battle to liberate Russia's Kursk region showed the “highest strategic level of the firm militant friendship” between North Korea and Russia, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) cited the North’s ruling party as saying.
Russia said last week that Ukrainian forces had been expelled from the last Russian village they had been holding, although Kyiv denied the claim and said their troops were still operating in Belgorod, another Russian region bordering Ukraine.
Photo: AFP
The Central Military Commission of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party said leader Kim Jong-un made the decision to deploy troops under the comprehensive strategic partnership treaty he signed with Putin last year.
Under Kim's orders, North Korean military units fought with the same commitment they would have shown if they were fighting for their own country, KCNA cited the commission as saying.
“They who fought for justice are all heroes and representatives of the honor of the motherland,” KCNA quoted Kim as saying.
North Korea “regards it as an honor to have an alliance with such a powerful state as the Russian Federation,” KCNA said.
The US Department of State demanded North Korea’s deployment to Russia and any support by Russia in return must end, adding Russia had violated UN Security Council resolutions by training North Korean soldiers.
Countries such as North Korea, whose support has "perpetuated the Russia-Ukraine war, bear responsibility," a department spokesperson told Reuters.
South Korea said today’s confirmation of the troop deployment was an “admission of criminal act,” and condemned North Korea for the “inhumane and immoral” decision to send its young people to battle with the intention of propping up its regime.
North Korea sent an estimated total of 14,000 troops, including 3,000 reinforcements to replace its losses, Ukrainian officials have said. Lacking armored vehicles and drone warfare experience, they took heavy casualties but adapted quickly.
Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces said on Thursday last week that they had killed a unit of 25 North Korean soldiers in Kursk. They released a video showing one of the slain soldiers and their possessions, which included a note written in Korean.
North Korea has also supplied weapons including artillery munitions and ballistic missiles, South Korean officials have said.
Russia confirmed on Saturday last week for the first time that North Korean soldiers have been fighting alongside Russians in Kursk.
Neither Russia nor North Korea had previously either confirmed or denied the deployment.
VAGUE: The criteria of the amnesty remain unclear, but it would cover political violence from 1999 to today, and those convicted of murder or drug trafficking would not qualify Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodriguez on Friday announced an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds of prisoners, including opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists detained for political reasons. The measure had long been sought by the US-backed opposition. It is the latest concession Rodriguez has made since taking the reins of the country on Jan. 3 after the brazen seizure of then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. Rodriguez told a gathering of justices, magistrates, ministers, military brass and other government leaders that the ruling party-controlled Venezuelan National Assembly would take up the bill with urgency. Rodriguez also announced the shutdown
Civil society leaders and members of a left-wing coalition yesterday filed impeachment complaints against Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, restarting a process sidelined by the Supreme Court last year. Both cases accuse Duterte of misusing public funds during her term as education secretary, while one revives allegations that she threatened to assassinate former ally Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The filings come on the same day that a committee in the House of Representatives was to begin hearings into impeachment complaints against Marcos, accused of corruption tied to a spiraling scandal over bogus flood control projects. Under the constitution, an impeachment by the
Exiled Tibetans began a unique global election yesterday for a government representing a homeland many have never seen, as part of a democratic exercise voters say carries great weight. From red-robed Buddhist monks in the snowy Himalayas, to political exiles in megacities across South Asia, to refugees in Australia, Europe and North America, voting takes place in 27 countries — but not China. “Elections ... show that the struggle for Tibet’s freedom and independence continues from generation to generation,” said candidate Gyaltsen Chokye, 33, who is based in the Indian hill-town of Dharamsala, headquarters of the government-in-exile, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). It
A Virginia man having an affair with the family’s Brazilian au pair on Monday was found guilty of murdering his wife and another man that prosecutors say was lured to the house as a fall guy. Brendan Banfield, a former Internal Revenue Service law enforcement officer, told police he came across Joseph Ryan attacking his wife, Christine Banfield, with a knife on the morning of Feb. 24, 2023. He shot Ryan and then Juliana Magalhaes, the au pair, shot him, too, but officials argued in court that the story was too good to be true, telling jurors that Brendan Banfield set
RSS