North Korea slams Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk Region

Pyongyang will always stand with Moscow in the fight to defend its sovereignty, the Foreign Ministry has said

The North Korean Foreign Ministry has blasted Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region, calling it a Western-backed act of terrorism.

Kiev’s largest attack on internationally recognized Russian territory since the outbreak of the conflict in February 2022 was the result of the “vicious anti-Russia confrontational policy” of the US, the ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

The Americans and their allies are trying to mislead the public by claiming they had nothing to do with the incursion, but “various heavy hardware, including US and Western tanks being discovered in the Kursk battlefield every day clearly proves who is standing behind Ukraine,” the Foreign Ministry said, as cited by state-run news agency KCNA.

Washington, which spent “astronomical” amounts on supplying Kiev with weapons, is pushing the security situation towards World War III, the ministry warned.

North Korea “denounces the armed attack on the territory of Russia being launched by the [Vladimir] Zelensky puppet authorities under the manipulation and support of the US and the West as an unpardonable act of aggression and terrorism,” the statement read.

It added that Pyongyang will always stand with Moscow as it seeks to protect its sovereignty.

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Russia and North Korea have significantly boosted bilateral relations recently, with the leaders of the two countries exchanging visits in the space of less than a year. During a trip to Pyongyang in June, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a “comprehensive strategic partnership” deal with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, which includes a mutual defense agreement.

Western officials have celebrated and expressed support for Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk Region, but denied any prior knowledge of the operation or any involvement in it. However, Mikhail Podoliak, the top adviser to Zelensky, claimed that “there were discussions between partner forces, just not on the public level,” of the attack.

Adviser to Putin and former Security Council secretary Nikolay Patrushev said earlier this week that the incursion was “planned with the involvement of NATO and Western special services.”

Washington also stated that it had banned Kiev from using US-supplied long-range ATACMS missiles in the attack on Kursk Region. However, Ukraine has used a range of other American equipment in the operation, including Bradley and Stryker infantry fighting vehicles, Patriot air defense systems, and HIMARS multiple rocket launchers.

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The Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that since the start of the incursion into Kursk Region on August 6, Kiev has lost up to 3,460 troops and several hundred units of military hardware, including 50 tanks, 45 APCs, and three US-made HIMARS systems. “The operation to destroy the Ukrainian armed formations continues,” the ministry said.