North Korea has released footage appearing to show Kim Jong Un‘s soldiers fighting for Russia on the brutal front lines in Ukraine.
The slick propaganda video, broadcast by the country’s state television KRT, purports to show soldiers engaged in harsh combat in Russia’s Kursk region, which borders northeastern Ukraine.
North Korean soldiers are seen advancing through snow-covered battlefields, shooting machine guns and artillery, launching missiles and grenades and manoeuvring through ruined buildings.
The undated video, which was screened during a ceremony led by Kim Jong Un to honour soldiers sent to fight for Russia, also shows soldiers undergoing medical procedures, singing, crying and waving the secretive nation’s flag.
Kim Jong Un wept during the ceremony as he comforted families of ‘heroic’ troops who he sent to die fighting against Ukraine.
The tyrant oversaw a service where he decorated returning soldiers and consoled children of the bereaved with hugs, state media said on Friday.
In a speech, quoted by state news agency Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), he said: ‘The combat activities of overseas operational forces… proved without regret the power of the heroic (North Korean) army’, and the ‘liberation of Kursk’ proved the ‘fighting spirit of the heroes’.
In front of a memorial wall listing the dead, Kim was seen hugging tearful children of fallen soldiers, with one wrapping his arms around the North Korean leader.
North Korea has released footage appearing to show Kim Jong Un ‘s soldiers fighting for Russia on the front lines in Ukraine
North Korean soldiers are seen advancing through snow-covered battlefields and manoeuvring through ruined buildings
The undated video, which was screened during a ceremony led by Kim Jong Un to honour soldiers sent to fight for Russia
Along with army generals, Kim attended a concert for soldiers who had returned from Russia as well as a banquet that included bereaved family members, KCNA said.
The events were the latest public honourings of North Korean troops who fought in Russia.
Kim praised their overseas mission as ‘the victorious conclusion’, KCNA reported, though it was not clear whether that indicated the withdrawal of its troops from Russia.
North Korean troops were first sent to Russia last October, according to NATO, as Vladimir Putin looked to solve Russia’s manpower problem.
The Russian and North Korean leaders had signed a pact in June to pledge mutual support against ‘aggresion’.
Last week Putin hailed North Korean troops sent to fight in Ukraine as ‘heroic’.
In a letter to mark the anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule in August 1945, Putin recalled how the two countries fought together to end Japanese occupation of the peninsula.
‘The bonds of militant friendship, goodwill and mutual aid which were consolidated in the days of the war long ago remain solid and reliable even today,’ Putin said in the letter revealed by North Korean state media.
Around 600 North Korean troops have died fighting for Russia against Ukraine out of a total deployment of roughly 15,000
The same ceremony saw Kim Jong Un weep as he comforted families of ‘heroic’ troops who he sent to die fighting against Ukraine
The tyrant oversaw a service where he decorated returning soldiers and consoled children of the bereaved with hugs, state media said on Friday
North Korea only confirmed that it had deployed soldiers in the Russia-Ukraine conflict in April, when state media said its soldiers had helped Russian forces ‘completely liberate’ the Kursk border region.
The country has also reportedly supplied millions of shells to Russia in a bid to tip the balance of the conflict.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has also provided ballistic missiles, 120 long-range artillery systems and 120 multiple-launch rocket systems.
Around 600 North Korean troops have died fighting for Russia against Ukraine out of a total deployment of 15,000, South Korean lawmakers said in April, citing the country’s intelligence agency.
The official tributes this week appear to want to ‘justify the deployment and boost morale’, the South Korean Yonhap news agency quoted a unification ministry official as saying.