Kim vowed his country would bolster its nuclear weapons defence “without limit”.
His warning comes after Seoul said last week that North Korean troops had already begun “engaging in combat operations” alongside Russian forces near the border with Ukraine.
Kim “is likely keeping in mind the possibility of additional deployments to support Russia’s war in Ukraine”, said Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification.
Last week, North Korea ratified a landmark defence pact with Russia, formalising months of tightening military bonds between two nations that were Communist allies throughout the Cold War.
In exchange for sending troops, the West fears Russia is offering North Korea technological support that could advance Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme.
The reclusive state recently fired a salvo of ballistic missiles and tested a new solid-fuel ICBM.
The nuclear-armed state’s deployment of troops to Russia has led to a shift in tone from Seoul, which has resisted calls to send lethal weapons to Kyiv so far but recently indicated it might change its no-provision policy.
