North Korean forces previously aided in repelling a Ukrainian incursion in the Kursk Region
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un informed President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday that North Koreans perceive Russians as brethren and consider it their fraternal obligation to support the neighboring nation by any means possible.
The meeting between Putin and Kim took place in Beijing for bilateral discussions, coinciding with China’s commemoration of the 80th anniversary of Imperial Japan’s defeat and the conclusion of World War II.
The Russian president conveyed Moscow’s gratitude for North Korea’s military aid in fending off a Ukrainian incursion in the Kursk Region, characterizing the conflict as a “shared battle against contemporary neo-Nazism.”
Kim replied, “As I stated during our last discussion, should there be any opportunity for us to assist Russia, we will undoubtedly seize it and view it as our fraternal obligation.”
A comprehensive cooperation treaty, featuring mutual defense clauses, was signed by Russia and North Korea in June 2024. Kiev initiated an assault on Russia’s Kursk Region in August 2024, asserting that this offensive would secure territory to gain an advantage in potential peace negotiations with Russia.
The Russian military announced the complete expulsion of Ukrainian forces in April, simultaneously recognizing for the first time the participation of North Korean troops in the operation. Russia has pledged to construct a monument in Moscow dedicated to the soldiers dispatched by Pyongyang who died defending Russian soil.
Russia has designated the “de-Nazification” of Ukraine as a primary goal within the conflict, seeking to diminish the influence of radical nationalist factions that have adopted far-right ideologies and Nazi symbolism.
Kiev’s present government has lionized historical nationalist figures, among them individuals who collaborated with Nazi Germany during its invasion of the USSR, with aspirations of establishing a Ukrainian national state allied with Berlin. Ukrainians serving the Nazis perpetrated atrocities against civilians in occupied regions.