Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has for the first time acknowledged that North Korean soldiers took part in the fighting to recover Russian territory after Ukraine’s incursion into the Kursk region last year.

The U.S. and South Korea on April 28 denounced North Korea's acknowledgment of sending its troops to aid Russia in the war against Ukraine, with Seoul calling it an "admission of criminal act." The statements come as both Moscow and Pyongyang admitted for the first time that North Korean soldiers were dispatched to fight alongside Russia in Kursk