​North Korea Confirms It Sent Troops to Fight for Russia

North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has ordered the building of a monument for its soldiers who were killed fighting for Russia in the war against Ukraine, state media reported on Monday, confirming the North’s military role in the European conflict for the first time.

Mr. Kim’s decision to start sending North Korean troops last year to fight for Russia opened “a new chapter of history which demonstrated the highest strategic level of the firm militant friendship” between the two countries, ​the Central Military Commission ​of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party said in a statement carried in its state media on Monday.

The statement marked the first time North Korea has acknowledged its deployment of troops to Russia or their participation in combat against Ukrainian forces.

On Saturday, 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​,” His comments were Russia’s first acknowledgment of North Korean troops fighting on its side.

Mr. Kim also praised his troops’ “heroism and bravery,” the North’s state media said. As many as 4,000 North Korean troops have been killed or wounded while ​fighting alongside Russia​n forces to help them retake territories lost to Ukraine in Kursk​, according to South Korean and Ukrainian officials.

“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,” Mr. Kim was quoted as saying by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency​.