An open secret Why Moscow and Pyongyang held off on acknowledging North Korean troops fighting against Ukraine
Last fall, reports surfaced that Pyongyang had sent soldiers to support Russia in its war against Ukraine. Even as the evidence kept piling up, official Russian and North Korean sources remained silent. That is, until a few days ago. In what was almost certainly a coordinated move, first Moscow, then Pyongyang, officially acknowledged that North Korean troops had fought in the war. Novaya Gazeta Europe spoke to regional experts and political analysts to understand why they chose to go public now. Meduza shares an abridged English-language version of the outlet’s reporting.
On April 26, Russian Army General Staff Chief Valery Gerasimov reported to President Vladimir Putin that the operation to reestablish control over the country’s western Kursk region had concluded. For the first time publicly, he acknowledged that North Korean troops had taken part in the fighting, saying they had provided “significant assistance” in defeating Ukrainian forces that had pushed into Russian territory. Their involvement, he noted, was grounded in the strategic partnership treaty signed with Pyongyang in June of last year and enacted on December 4.
That same day, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova praised what she called a new chapter in “the proud chronicle of the Russian and Korean peoples’ combat brotherhood” in a post on her Telegram channel. She said North Korean troops had fought alongside Russian forces “shoulder to shoulder, in the same trenches,” and made a “meaningful contribution to the liberation of Russian land from enemy occupation.” The deployment, she emphasized, was in line with the treaty’s provisions, which include a clause stipulating that either side will provide immediate military assistance if the other is attacked.
On April 28, North Korea’s state news agency KCNA confirmed that its forces had joined Russian troops in the war against Ukraine. It said North Korean soldiers had performed “heroic feats” while helping repel what it called a “blatant violation of sovereignty by the Ukrainian authorities.”
North Korea leader Kim Jong Un described the operation in the Kursk region as a “sacred mission,” calling the deployed troops “heroes” and “symbols of our nation’s honor.” He announced plans to build a monument in Pyongyang to commemorate their actions. “The homeland and its people, who wish them immortality, will lay flowers at the graves of the fallen,” he said.
Shortly after, the Kremlin published a statement from President Putin thanking the Korean People’s Army and Kim personally. He said the North Korean troops had acted out of “a sense of solidarity, justice, and genuine comradery,” and praised their “excellent training and dedication.” According to Putin, “the Russian people will never forget the heroism of the DPRK special forces,” who, he said, had defended Russia’s territory “as their own.”
Where there’s smoke
While Pyongyang has only now confirmed the presence of North Korean troops in the war, reports of their involvement began circulating last year. In October 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported that North Korea had sent 3,000 soldiers to Russia for training. South Korean officials said they believed Pyongyang planned to send as many as 12,000 troops.
“There is evidence that there are [North Korean] troops in Russia,” then-U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at the time. “What exactly they are doing? Left to be seen. These are things that we need to sort out.”
This followed years of growing ties between Moscow and Pyongyang. In 2022, North Korea recognized the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics,” prompting Ukraine to sever diplomatic relations. Pyongyang later endorsed the “referendums” Russia staged in occupied parts of Ukraine. In 2023, Kim Jong Un visited Russia; a year later, Vladimir Putin traveled to North Korea where the two leaders signed a mutual defense pact.
Soon after, the Institute for the Study of War reported that North Korean soldiers would be deployed to frontline areas as early as the summer of 2024 and would help “rebuild infrastructure” in occupied Donetsk. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the claim at the time, saying the government “had no idea what this was about.”
In October, when an NBC reporter asked Putin directly about the presence of North Korean troops in Russia, the president avoided giving a clear answer. But when pressed about satellite imagery from the Russian Far East released by South Korean intelligence, he replied: “[Satellite] images are serious things. If they exist, they reflect something.”
In January 2025, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that some 4,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed or wounded in the war. In February, reports emerged that hundreds of injured Russian troops were undergoing rehabilitation in North Korea.
That same month, The Wall Street Journal spoke with two captured North Korean soldiers. Both seemed largely ignorant of the war they were sent to fight in. “I didn’t know I was going to Russia,” one of them said. “I realized it only when I arrived.”
He had been transported by train in November 2024, along with other North Korean servicemen. Upon arrival in Russia’s Far East, they were issued Russian military uniforms, IDs, and equipment. From there, he was sent to a training camp, where instructors — using translators — taught them how to operate drones. Soon after, he was deployed to the front in Russia’s Kursk region. He was wounded within a week, captured by Ukrainian forces, and later had several toes amputated due to gangrene.
The second prisoner, a sniper in the North Korean army, said he’d volunteered for combat, swayed by propaganda about fighting South Korean soldiers who were allegedly fighting for Ukraine and motivated by the prospect of gaining “real battlefield experience.” He was captured alongside other North Korean soldiers on January 9 after clashes with Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region.
According to an investigation by Verstka, some injured North Korean soldiers have been treated at a branch of the Burdenko military hospital outside Moscow. Sources said Moscow’s Korean Choson Choir even performed for the wounded, though attendees were later asked not to publicize the concert — reportedly in keeping with official policy. One source told the outlet that since the start of 2025, more than 500 North Korean soldiers had passed through two branches of the Burdenko facility.
‘The time had come’
Why did officials from both Russia and North Korea wait so long to confirm that North Korean troops were fighting in the war? According to political analyst Fyodor Krasheninnikov, the delay may have been at Pyongyang’s request.
“They have their own internal logic — their own propaganda, their own ideology,” he said. “They needed to fit this into their domestic messaging. I think they asked the Russians not to bring it up. And once they figured out how to spin it at home, they decided the time had come to say, ‘Yes, that was us.’”
Krasheninnikov suggested that the announcement may also have been timed ahead of Russia’s Victory Day parade on May 9. If there are plans for North Korean troops to appear in the event, it would make sense to formally acknowledge their role in the war. North Korean propaganda, he added, is “deeply triumphalist.”
“The Korean army can’t lose. Kim [Jong Un] can’t be wrong. So now, they’ll tell the Korean people that their heroic volunteers or soldiers helped Russia — and that they defeated everyone,” he said. “In fact, I think they’ll say they defeated the Americans.”
That framing, he noted, fits the long-standing narrative of North Korean propaganda, which casts the country as standing against the United States. “[It’s like] we’re the heroes, we’re the strong ones. And look — even Russia respects us and respects our leader,” Krasheninnikov said.
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Andrei Lankov, a Korea specialist and professor at Seoul’s Kookmin University, largely agrees. “Moscow quickly concluded there was no point in hiding the truth, so the period of silence didn’t last long,” he told journalists. Like Krasheninnikov, he believes the official announcement is likely tied to Russia’s upcoming Victory Day holiday — a symbolic occasion that lends itself well to formalizing what had previously been only loosely acknowledged. He also noted that there’s speculation Kim Jong Un might attend the parade in person.
Yevgeny Kim, a senior research fellow at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Center for Korean Studies, pointed to the operation in the Kursk region as a likely turning point for acknowledging North Korea’s role in the war.
“An enemy force crossed into Russian territory. Apart from the North Koreans, there are no other foreign troops on Russian soil,” he said. “And under the terms of the comprehensive strategic partnership agreement, the participation of North Korean soldiers and officers is no longer technically required — no one has attacked us, and we’re not officially at war. So, as I understand it, their involvement is over.”
“At some point,” he added, “we’ll be told how many North Koreans actually took part.”
