North Korea’s communist dictator Kim Jong-un appeared on the nation’s state propaganda broadcasts on Monday at an event honoring the country’s soldiers killed in the ongoing Russia invasion of Ukraine, in which at least 15,000 North Koreans are estimated to be fighting.
The Korean Central Television footage appeared to show an event marking the anniversary of Kim signing a mutual defense agreement with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, which preceded the appearance of North Korean troops in Ukraine and in Kursk, Russia — where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky launched a counter-invasion last year. Ukrainian fighters documented the presence of North Korean soldiers in the war theater for months before Pyongyang admitted their presence alongside participants from nations such as Cuba and India.
In January, Zelensky published videos on social media of alleged North Korean soldiers captured fighting against Ukraine. With the aid of South Korean translators, the North Koreans reportedly stated that they believed they were being sent to military “training” and did not know they were en route to fight in the Ukraine invasion. Kyiv and Seoul authorities have stated they believe the North Koreans were among thousands deployed to help the Russian effort.
South Korea’s JoongAng Daily reported that the broadcast on Monday featured highlights from an event the day before in which Pyongyang honored the mutual defense treaty with Russia. Kim and wife Ri Sol-ju appeared in a theater watching musical and other artistic performances as well as video montages related to the Moscow-Pyongyang relationship. One of these videos showed Kim welcoming the coffins of North Koreans killed fighting for Russia back home.
The dictator appeared tearful as he draped flags over the coffins in the video, and visibly emotional standing in the audience of the theater showing the footage of himself honoring the soldiers. The state media footage also showed that present at the event was Kim Yo-jong, Kim’s sister and a high-ranking member of the dominant Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK).
JoongAng observed that the welcome-back ceremony for the bodies of the soldiers killed “appeared to mimic the repatriation services seen in countries like the United States and South Korea” and was uncommon in North Korean propaganda, particularly since, prior to the Ukraine adventure, Pyongyang had not engaged in overt hostilities against another nation since the active portion of the Korean War from 1950 to 1953. The newspaper also noted that the footage “appeared to show only four or five coffins — a stark contrast to reports that over 4,700 North Korean troops have died on the Kursk front.”
The true number of North Koreans killed in Ukraine remains a mystery in public at press time. While some South Korean officials have estimated that the country has lost nearly 5,000 fighters in the conflict, others have estimated that the true casualty count is close to 600, along with thousands of injuries.
The South Korean news agency Yonhap posited that the objective of filming Kim playing a prominent role in comforting the families of the soldiers killed in Ukraine is to pressure Russia to offer more compensation to the regime for their participation. Yonhap cited South Korean officials anonymously speaking to reporters in the country who stated that Seoul had reason to believe the target audience for the images is also North Korea’s internal population, which is experiencing “some agitation” over being told to sacrifice their sons for a war they have little to no information about.
“North Korea also seems to have aimed to promote internal solidarity as it is believed that there was some agitation from the people over the regime not disclosing the fact that it had sent troops,” an anonymous official was quoted as saying. Yonhap paraphrased that official as adding that “North Korea airing images of Kim mourning over the deaths of the North’s troops was seen as a message to Russia that says it wants corresponding rewards for the sacrifice.”
North Korea is believed to have become an active participant in the Russian invasion of Ukraine in June 2024 during a visit by Putin to Pyongyang, the first in over two decades. Putin and Kim signed a mutual defense agreement on that occasion that required each nation to aid the other in the event of a foreign attack. In August of that year, Zelensky approved a surprise attack on Kursk, an uncontested region of Russia, in response to over two years of Russian troops attacking civilian areas throughout Ukraine. Putin began invading Ukraine selectively in 2014, colonizing its Crimean peninsula at that time, but launched a full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022 after then-President Joe Biden lifted sanctions on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline project.
International observers, including South Korean intelligence officials, have indicated that they expect North Korea’s presence in the war theater to grow in the near future, as Russia seeks to reinforce its own troops in the conflict. North Korea reportedly sent a delegation to Russia on Tuesday featuring the head of Pyongyang’s most prominent military school, the Kim Il-sung Military University, to visit the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia, according to Yonhap. North Korean state media did not specify the objective of the trip, but it is possible that Pyongyang is seeking to improve coordination in training to help streamline working together on the battlefield.
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