North Korea has admitted for the first time that its soldiers were sent to Russia’s Kursk region earlier this year to clear mines, a rare acknowledgement of the dangerous tasks assigned to its forces abroad.
Leader Kim Jong-un made the disclosure in a speech carried by state media on Saturday, hailing the return of an engineering regiment that had been deployed for 120 days from August. According to South Korean and western intelligence agencies, Pyongyang has dispatched thousands of troops to support Russia’s nearly four-year invasion of Ukraine.
Analysts say Moscow has provided North Korea with financial aid, military technology, food and energy supplies in exchange, helping the isolated state to circumvent international sanctions on its nuclear and missile programmes.
Kim told the ceremony that nine members of the regiment had died during the mission. He awarded them state honours, saying their sacrifice would “add eternal lustre” to their bravery. He praised the soldiers for “mass heroism” in overcoming “unimaginable mental and physical burdens almost every day”.
The North Korean leader said the troops had “worked a miracle of turning a vast area of danger zone into a safe and secure one in a matter of less than three months”. He noted that during breaks in mine-clearing, soldiers wrote letters to their families back home.
Images released by the Korean Central News Agency showed Kim embracing returning soldiers, some visibly injured and in wheelchairs. One soldier appeared emotional as Kim held his head and hand. Other photographs depicted Kim consoling bereaved families and kneeling before a portrait of a fallen soldier, placing medals and flowers beside images of the dead.
Kim spoke of the “pain of waiting for 120 days in which he had never forgotten the beloved sons even for a moment”.
The ceremony followed earlier events in August and July, when state media showed Kim embracing emotional soldiers and honouring flag-draped coffins of those killed.
In September, Kim appeared alongside China’s president, Xi Jinping, and Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, at a military parade in Beijing. He later declined an offer from US president Donald Trump to meet during Trump’s Asia trip in October.
North Korea only confirmed in April that its troops had been deployed to support Russia and that some had been killed in combat.
