​Putin thanks Kim for North Korean troops fighting against Ukraine

Seoul: For months, Russia and North Korea had been vague about the deployment of North Korean troops in Russia's war against Ukraine, even after Ukraine publicly paraded two North Korean soldiers its forces had captured.

Then, in back-to-back statements, the leaders of the two countries confirmed that North Korean troops have been fighting shoulder to shoulder with Russia's, saying they had helped liberate the Kursk border region from Ukrainian forces.

Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader, said he had sent troops to Russia to boost its military alliance, praising their "heroism and bravery," the country's state media said Monday. Kim ordered a monument be built for soldiers slain in Russia, as if to remind President Vladimir Putin of the debt he owed.

Putin said Monday that the Russian people would never forget the feats of North Korea's special forces. "We will always honor the Korean heroes who gave their lives for Russia, for our common freedom, on par with their Russian brothers in arms," he said in a statement published on the Kremlin website.

The statements followed Russia's first official acknowledgment of North Korea's military assistance Saturday, even though the alliance has long been known. Officials from South Korea, Ukraine and the United States have said as many as 4,000 North Korean troops have been killed or wounded while fighting for Russia since last year.

North Korea has sent 14,000 troops, mostly members of its special operations units, to Russia, including 3,000 dispatched earlier this year to replace those killed or wounded, 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 pound Ukrainian cities.

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

By claiming the "complete liberation" of Kursk with the help of North Korean troops, Moscow was depriving Ukraine of a key bargaining chip in peace talks. North Korea's continued commitment of military aid also helps strengthen Russia's negotiating power as President Donald Trump grows impatient for a peace deal with both Russia and Ukraine. On Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that Trump might abandon his attempts to broker a settlement if he does not see progress soon.

For North Korea, cementing a military alliance with Russia "at the cost of blood in combat gunfire" and keeping Putin beholden to Kim increases its own diplomatic leverage against Washington. Trump has said he wanted to reach out to Kim for a possible deal over his nuclear weapons program.

"It's a win-win strategy for both Russia and North Korea," said Hong Min, a North Korea expert at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul.

On Saturday, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, Russia's top military commander, praised the North Korean troops' "fortitude and heroism​," as he claimed the "complete liberation" of Russia's Kursk border region​. He also thanked them for their "considerable assistance in defeating the group of Ukrainian armed forces​."

The Ukrainian army had stunned Russia in August by attacking across the border and taking control of parts of Kursk. But the Russians began beating them back after the arrival of North Korean troops late last year. On Saturday, Gerasimov claimed that Russia now controlled parts of the adjacent Ukrainian region of Sumy as well, although he didn't specify whether the North Koreans joined in that operation.

Ukraine has disputed the claim by Russia to have retaken Kursk, insisting that its troops were still holding positions there.

Ukraine had hoped to use the land it had occupied in Kursk as a bargaining chip in peace talks with Russia, which has seized parts of eastern and southern Ukraine since its offensive began in 2022. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine met with Trump on the sidelines of Pope Francis' funeral at the Vatican on Saturday to discuss a ceasefire.

North Korea's state media indicated ​that Kim first proposed to send troops to Russia under a mutual defense treaty he signed with Putin in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, in June. The decision "demonstrated the highest strategic level of the firm militant friendship" between the two countries, it said.

"A monument to the battle feats will be soon erected in our capital city, and flowers of praying for immortality given by the motherland and the people will be placed before the tombstones of the fallen soldiers," Kim was quoted as saying in North Korean media.

North Korea may send more troops to Russia in the future and expand its troops' operations in order to deepen military ties and reap greater rewards, said Doo Jin-ho, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in Seoul.

South Korean and United States officials have said they fear that North Korea is receiving badly needed economic aid and assistance in weapons technologies from Russia in return for its troop deployment. Such aid would help North Korea weather the impact of US-led international sanctions and improve its military's capabilities.