North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has awarded North Korean soldiers who fought for Russia in the war against Ukraine, North Korea’s state-run media outlet CTAK reported on 22 August.
During the ceremony in Pyongyang, portraits of the fallen soldiers were displayed on stage. One of the pictures published by the CTAC shows Kim hugging a soldier who returned from the Russian war.
The Wall Street Journal points out that more than a dozen high-ranking commanders involved in Russia’s war with Ukraine were at the ceremony.
The publication speculates that they may be redeployed to Russia again, although their departure comes amid a decline in fighting involving DPRK forces in recent months.
In June, South Korea’s intelligence service suggested that North Korea was likely to send additional troops to support Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Group, which includes 11 countries, released a report in late May indicating that North Korea has supplied Russia with more than 20,000 containers of munitions since September 2023, thereby facilitating Russian strikes on Ukraine, particularly against critical infrastructure.
Pyongyang and Moscow, which ratified the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty in November 2024, deny the arms shipments, but in April the DPRK confirmed the involvement of North Korean troops in combat operations against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region.
UK intelligence noted on 15 June that North Korean forces likely suffered more than six thousand personnel losses in combat operations against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region, more than half of the approximately 11,000 DPRK troops initially deployed there