Kim Jong-un has hailed North Korean troops fighting alongside Russia in the war in Ukraine as “heroes”, at a ceremony to honour soldiers who recently returned from the conflict, state media said on Friday.

The North Korean leader said in a speech this week that his troops had displayed “fighting spirit of the heroes” during their operation to retake Russia’s Kursk region from Ukrainian forces – which had established a foothold there last year – the state news agency KCNA said.

“The combat activities of overseas operational forces … proved without regret the power of the heroic [North Korean] army,” Kim said.

Kim laid a flower at a memorial for North Korean soldiers who had died overseas, while soldiers who had returned from Russia were honoured with a concert, KCNA said, adding that relatives of troops killed in action had been among those attending a banquet.

The events were the latest public show of gratitude by the regime in Pyongyang, in stark contrast to the secrecy that surrounded North Korea’s role in the war when its troops were first sent to Russia last autumn.

Kim met officers of the army’s overseas operation and paid tribute to North Korean soldiers killed in Ukraine. He said they had been assigned to carry out the “most important duty” and voiced “warm militant encouragement” to the commanders and troops, KCNA said.

The ceremony comes days after the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, used similar language to pay tribute to North Korean troops sent to fight alongside Russian forces.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un meeting with bereaved families Photograph: KCNA VIA KNS/AFP/Getty Images

In a letter to Kim to mark the anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule in August 1945, Putin described North Korean troops as “heroic” and recalled how Soviet units and North Korean forces had also fought together to end Japan’s occupation of the Korean 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.

Russia and North Korea forged increasingly close military and diplomatic ties, triggering international concern that the North’s troops are acquiring valuable combat experience that could one day be used against the country’s neighbour, South Korea.

Kim and Putin signed a mutual defence pact last year, and in April this year, North Korea confirmed for the first time that it had deployed a contingent of soldiers to the frontline in Ukraine to fight alongside Russian troops.

Pyongyang sent more than 10,000 soldiers to Russia’s Kursk region in 2024, according to South Korean and western intelligence agencies, along with artillery shells, missiles and long-range rocket systems.

About 600 North Korean troops have been killed out of a total deployment of 15,000, South Korean lawmakers said in April, citing the South’s intelligence agency.

This week’s official tributes appeared to be intended to “justify the deployment and boost morale”, the South’s Yonhap news agency quoted a unification ministry official as saying.

With Reuters