JUST IN: North Korea sent troops to clear mines in Russia’s Kursk region earlier this year, Kim Jong-un said.

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 (Dec 13) by state media, a rare acknowledgement by Pyongyang 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.

Hailing the return of an engineering regiment, Kim noted that they wrote “letters to their hometowns and villages at breaks of the mine-clearing hours”, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Nine members of the regiment died during the 120-day deployment that started in August, Kim said in his speech at a welcome ceremony on Friday, KCNA reported.

He awarded the deceased state honours to “add eternal lustre” to their bravery.

“All of you, both officers and soldiers, displayed mass heroism overcoming unimaginable mental and physical burdens almost every day,” Kim said.

The troops had been able to “work a miracle of turning a vast area of danger zone into a safe and secure one in a matter of less than three months”.

One of them looked visibly emotional as Kim held his head and hand while he sat in a wheelchair in a military uniform.

Other images showed Kim consoling families of the deceased and kneeling before a portrait of a fallen soldier to pay his respects, placing what appeared to be medals and flowers beside images of the dead.

The North Korean leader also mentioned the “pain of waiting for one hundred and twenty days in which he had never forgotten the beloved sons even for a moment”.

In September, Kim appeared alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin at an elaborate military parade in Beijing.

Kim did not respond to an offer from Donald Trump to meet during the US president’s Asia trip in October.