North Korea’s Kim decorates troops who fought for Russia

AFP | Seoul

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New images released by North Korean state media yesterday showed leader Kim Jong Un kneeling before portraits of soldiers killed fighting for Russia against Ukraine, as well as hugging an emotional survivor of the conflict.

The images of an elaborate ceremony showed an overcome Kim presenting medals, placing them beside portraits of the fallen and consoling the returned soldiers, as Pyongyang’s leadership hailed the soldiers as “heroes” who sacrificed their youth and lives.

South Korean and Western intelligence agencies have said the North sent over 10,000 soldiers to Russia in 2024 -- primarily to the Kursk region -- along with artillery shells, missiles and longrange rocket systems.

Around 600 North Korean soldiers have been killed and thousands more wounded fighting for Russia, Seoul has said.

At the ceremony held at the Workers’ Party headquarters in Pyongyang, portraits of the fallen soldiers, along with their names, were displayed on stage, the images showed.

There, Kim praised the “admirable” troops “who returned home with great honour” after enduring the “hail of bullets and bombs of the life-and-death war in the foreign country”, Pyongyang ’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

In one of the images released by KCNA, an emotional Kim was seen embracing a returned solider who appeared overwhelmed, burying his face in the leader’s chest during the ceremony.