​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​.

He also ordered his government “to specially and preferentially treat and take care of the families of the brave soldiers who participated in the war.”

North Korea has sent 14,000 troops, mostly members of its special operations units, to Russia since last year, including 3,000 dispatched between January and February to replace those killed or wounded, according to South Korean officials.

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

Kyiv had hoped to use the land it had occupied in Kursk as a bargaining chip in future peace talks with Russia, which has seized parts of eastern and southern Ukraine since its offensive began in 2022. Its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, met with President Donald J. Trump on the sidelines of Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican on Saturday to discuss a cease-fire.

The North’s state media indicated ​that Mr. Kim first proposed to send troops to Russia under a mutual defense treaty he signed with Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, in Pyongyang in June last year. The treaty calls for both nations to provide military assistance without delay if either of them is attacked.

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.

On Monday, North Korea said its alliance with Russia “verified at the cost of blood in combat gunfire will greatly contribute to expanding and developing the future relations of friendship and cooperation between” the two nations.