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North Korea’s Kim reveals soldiers cleared mines for Russia, in rare public statement
The North Korean leader hailed returning troops for displaying ‘mass heroism’ during demining operations in the Kursk region
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North Korea sent troops to clear mines in Russia’s Kursk region earlier this year, leader Kim Jong-un said in a speech carried on Saturday by state media, in a rare acknowledgement of the deadly tasks assigned to its soldiers there.
Pyongyang has sent thousands of troops to fight for Moscow as it presses ahead with its nearly four-year invasion of Ukraine, according to South Korean and Western intelligence agencies.
Analysts say Russia is giving North Korea financial aid, military technology, food and energy supplies in return, allowing the diplomatically isolated nation to sidestep tough international sanctions on its nuclear and missile programmes.
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Last month, Russia’s Defence Ministry said North Korean troops who helped Russia repel a major Ukrainian incursion into the Kursk region were now playing an important role in clearing the area of mines.
Under a mutual defence pact between the two countries, North Korea last year sent some 14,000 soldiers to fight alongside Russia in Kursk, and more than 6,000 were killed.
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Hailing the return of an engineering regiment, Kim said that they wrote “letters to their hometowns and villages at breaks of the mine-clearing hours”, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
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