North Korea’s Kim Yo-jong denies Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s claim that Pyongyang plans to deploy up to 50,000 additional troops to Russia. In a statement carried by North Korea’s state media KCNA, Kim says Zelensky’s figure is “groundless” and describes it as “a self-staged incident.”
The dispute follows Zelensky’s social media post earlier this month, in which he also called on South Korea to provide support. The outlets reporting on the exchange frame it as a public denial by a senior North Korean official linked to the ruling party. While Zelensky presents an assessment of the scale of a possible deployment, North Korea rejects the claim outright. No independent confirmation of troop plans is included in the provided reporting, and the accounts differ mainly in attribution and intent—Ukraine’s assertion versus North Korea’s denial.
