North Korea on Monday confirmed for the first time that it has sent troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine.

U.S., South Korean and Ukraine intelligence officials have said that North Korea last fall dispatched about 10,000-12,000 troops to Russia. But North Korea hadn’t confirmed or denied its reported troop deployments to Russia until Monday.

In a statement provided to North Korea’s state media, the North’s Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers’ Party said leader Kim Jong Un had decided to send combat troops to Russia under a mutual defense treaty.

It cited Kim as saying that the troops’ deployment was meant to “annihilate and wipe out the Ukrainian neo-Nazi occupiers and liberate the Kursk area in cooperation with the Russian armed forces.”

“They who fought for justice are all heroes and representatives of the honor of the motherland,” Kim said, according to the statement.

In February, South Korea’s spy agency said North Korea appears to have sent additional troops to Russia, after its soldiers deployed on the Russian-Ukraine fronts suffered heavy casualties.

In January, the NIS said about 300 North Korean soldiers had died and another 2,700 had been injured. Zelenskyy earlier put the number of killed or wounded North Koreans at 4,000, though U.S. estimates were lower at around 1,200.

(AP)