North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, along with his wife Ri Sol-ju and daughter Ju-ae, paid tribute at sites including the Taesong Mountain Revolutionary Martyrs’ Cemetery on the 14th, marking the 81st anniversary of national liberation, the Korean Central News Agency reported on the 15th. Yonhap News
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited the Liberation Tower in Pyongyang, a memorial to former Soviet soldiers, together with his daughter Ju-ae to mark the 81st anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese rule. Russian President Vladimir Putin also sent a congratulatory message referring to “joint projects” between the two countries — apparently a reference to the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia — reaffirming the deepening ties between Pyongyang and Moscow.
The Korean Central News Agency reported on the 15th that Kim had visited the Liberation Tower the previous day and laid a wreath.
“The excellent history, traditions and blood ties between North Korea and Russia are the fundamental cornerstone of the two countries’ friendly and cooperative relations today,” Kim said, adding that “the great friendly unity between the peoples of the two countries will be firmly carried forward and developed from generation to generation.” He then dedicated a wreath in his own name bearing the words, “We do not forget the achievements of the fallen Soviet soldiers.”
This was the third time Kim has visited the Liberation Tower on the occasion of Liberation Day. He has visited the site every year since 2024, when North Korea and Russia signed their “Treaty on the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership,” using the occasion to highlight relations between the two countries. The Pyongyang Liberation Tower is a monument erected to honor Soviet soldiers who died fighting Japanese forces on North Korean territory in 1945.
In his congratulatory message to Kim, Putin said relations between the two countries had “risen to an unprecedentedly high level of comprehensive strategic partnership” and that they were “actively cooperating in all areas.” He went on to stress that the two sides would “continue constructive joint projects on pressing bilateral and international issues in order to establish a more just and genuinely democratic world order.”
The “joint projects” referred to here are interpreted as pointing to military cooperation, including the deployment of North Korean troops to the war in Ukraine. In a June 2024 summit in Pyongyang, North Korea and Russia signed a treaty requiring each side to provide military assistance if the other comes under armed attack and enters a state of war. From October of that year, North Korea expanded military cooperation by sending combat troops and engineers to Russia.
Recently, the possibility of an additional North Korean troop deployment has also been raised. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that Russia was seeking to receive an additional 30,000 North Korean troops and deploy them in border areas. Kyodo News, citing Ukrainian Defense Ministry materials, also reported that North Korea and Russia were considering a plan to increase the size of the North Korean deployment to 50,000 by the end of November this year.
Kim was accompanied on the day’s schedule by his wife, Ri Sol-ju, and daughter Ju-ae. It was the first time Ju-ae had appeared at Kim’s Liberation Day commemoration schedule. The move is interpreted as a message casting Ju-ae as a member of the future generation and a successor to the “Baekdu bloodline,” while signaling that North Korea-Russia relations, too, will be carried on to the next generation.
Ju-ae had also attended commemoration events for the first time on the 27th of last month, including a visit to the Fatherland Liberation War Martyrs Cemetery, on the anniversary of the signing of the Korean War armistice, which North Korea marks as “Victory Day.”