Russia<\/a> in return.<\/p>\nKim praised his men fighting in an \u201calien land\u201d, congratulating their \u201cheroic\u201d defence of the nation\u2019s honour and instructing them to \u201cbe brave\u201d, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the whole country is enveloped in a festive atmosphere of greeting the new year, I all the more miss you, who are fighting bravely on the battlefields in the alien land even at this moment,\u201d he said, according to KCNA.<\/p>\n
\u201cBehind you are Pyongyang and Moscow,\u201d Kim said.<\/p>\n
The North Korean leader praised soldiers for strengthening the \u201cinvincible alliance\u201d with Russia, calling on them to fight \u201cfor the fraternal Russian people\u201d.<\/p>\n
And Kim hinted that more overseas action would take place this year, highlighting \u201cremarkable feats you will perform on the overseas battlefields\u201d.<\/p>\n
In this picture, according to details provided by North Korean state media, Kim Jong-un sits with his daughter Ju Ae (centre) and his wife Ri Sol Ju. Photograph: KCNA VIA KNS\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Kim marked the new year with a lavish celebration performance and speech at Pyongyang\u2019s May Day stadium, state media said. Images shared by KCNA showed Kim accompanied by his wife, Ri Sol Ju, and his daughter Ju Ae, believed to be his likely successor.<\/p>\n
Analysts say that North Korea\u2019s deepening alliance with Russia has offered an economic lifeline to Kim\u2019s regime and allowed him to rebuff US and South Korean overtures for dialogue.<\/p>\n
On-the-ground accounts, however, paint a grim picture for North Korean troops embedded in Europe\u2019s bloodiest war in decades.<\/p>\n
Pyongyang\u2019s soldiers have been ordered to kill themselves rather than be taken prisoner, according to South Korea\u2019s intelligence service and accounts by two North Koreans captured by Ukraine.<\/p>\n
The two men, held captive by Kyiv since January 2025 after sustaining injuries on the battlefield, have expressed a desire to defect to the South.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, has praised his troops fighting abroad as forging an \u201cinvincible alliance\u201d with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[332],"class_list":{"0":"post-666584","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-russia"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115819260571975095","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}