Seoul - Saba:
North Korea officially announced the dispatch of troops to Russia under the strategic partnership agreement between the two countries.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency as saying, "Leader Kim Jong Un, based on an analysis and assessment of the current military-political situation, concluded that the current situation falls within Article 4 of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation. Based on this, he made the decision to send our armed forces to participate in hostilities and notified the Russian side."
Last Saturday, the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, said that North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Russian forces against the Kiev regime's forces in the Kursk Oblast had demonstrated great steadfastness and heroism.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed in a statement posted on the Foreign Ministry's website that North Korean servicemen had fought alongside Russians in the Kursk Oblast in accordance with the provisions of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty between Russia and North Korea, noting that they had made a significant contribution to the liberation of the territory of the Oblast.
She added, "A new page has been opened in the history of the glorious military brotherhood between the Russian and Korean peoples. In accordance with the provisions of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty between Russia and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, which entered into force on December 4, 2024, the soldiers of the Korean People's Army fought side by side, in the same trench, and shed their blood with our soldiers and officers in the Kursk Oblast, making a significant contribution to the liberation of Russian lands from enemy occupiers."
Last Saturday, the Russian presidency announced that the operation to liberate the Kursk Oblast from Ukrainian forces had been completed, noting that the Supreme Commander of the Russian Armed Forces, President Vladimir Putin, had received a report on the matter.
It is worth noting that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has visited Russia twice. In 2019, talks between the leaders of the Russian Federation and North Korea took place in Vladivostok, and in 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un visited the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Amur Oblast in eastern Russia.
In June 2024, Putin visited North Korea on a friendly state visit.
This was Putin's first visit to Pyongyang since July 2000 and the first state visit in the history of bilateral relations—the highest category under diplomatic protocol.
It is worth noting that during Putin's visit to Pyongyang, Russia and North Korea signed an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in healthcare, medical education, and science, an agreement on the construction of a border road bridge across the Tumanaya River, and a new comprehensive strategic partnership treaty.
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