SEOUL — North Korea acknowledged for the first time on Monday that it sent troops to fight for Russia in its war against Ukraine.

North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un had sent the troops to Russia under the mutual defense treaty, the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers' Party said in a statement.

“They who fought for justice are all heroes and representatives of the honor of the motherland,” the North Korean leader said, according to the statement sent to state media.

The decision reportedly made a significant contribution towards liberating Russian territory occupied by Ukraine, state media claimed.

On Saturday, Russia announced all Ukrainian troops had been removed from its Kursk region, which Moscow lost control of last year to a surprise Ukraine incursion.

Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff for Russia’s Armed Forces, had also confirmed that North Korean soldiers fought against Ukrainian troops in the region.

Gerasimov said that they took part in “combat missions shoulder to shoulder with Russian servicemen during the repelling of the Ukrainian incursion” and “demonstrated high professionalism, showed fortitude, courage and heroism in battle.”

In the fall, Ukraine, the US and South Korea all said that North Korea, which previously had supplied weapons to Moscow, had deployed 10,000-12,000 of its troops to Russia to fight in Kursk.

Moscow and Pyongyang until now had responded vaguely to the South Korean and Western claims of the troop deployment, emphasizing that their military cooperation conforms with international law, without directly admitting the presence of the North Korean forces in Russia. — Euronews