North Korean leader Kim Jung un has decorated Pyongyang troops who fought in Russia’s Kursk region against Ukrainian soldiers. Images aired on the state television showed Kim Jung un embracing the surviving soldiers and also kneeling before the portraits of North Korean soldiers killed in Kursk region, calling them “heroes”. The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted Kim Jung as saying that the soldiers “returned home with great honor” after enduring “the hail of bullets and bombs of the life-and-death war in a foreign country.” Furthermore, the images showed Kim placing medals and flowers at portraits of the fallen soldiers. “My heart aches and is bitter as I face the reality that I only get to meet the noble figures who gave up their precious lives for great victory and glory through photos on the memorial wall,” Kim Jung un said in a speech, according to KCNA. Later, a banquet was held to further celebrate the unit that had returned from Russia. The state media also aired a documentary film dedicated to North Koreans fighting within the Russian army in Kursk.
North Korea sent troops to the region shortly after Ukrainian army’s surprise cross-border incursion in August last year. After months of denied, Pyongyang has now publicly acknowledged sending thousands of troops to Kursk. Pyongyang has also been providing Russia with ammunitions and weapons to help Russia’s war effort in line with the defence agreement signed between the two countries’ leaders in June 2024.
