The capital of North Korea, Pyongyang, will host the construction of the Combat Deeds Memorial Museum, un memorial honoring fallen North Korean soldiers andn the battlefield due to clashes – unleashed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in February 2022 -, especially in the Russian Kursk region, after a surprise incursion by Ukrainian troops in early August 2024.
In addition to the president of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Kim Jong-un, the Russian ambassador to the Asian country also attended the groundbreaking ceremony. The North Korean leader then celebrated a “historic peak” in relations with Moscowaccording to information collected by the state news agency KCNA.
He also highlighted the “brilliant work” carried out by the military in Kursk, where “they have shed their blood” and “lost their lives.” “This place is the sanctuary that our country and our people offer to welcome the great sons who defended the most sacred at the cost of the most precious thing in their lives and pray for their immortality,” he stated.
Kim Jong-un explained that it is a “cemetery”, a “memorial hall and a monument “which will be erected as an integral whole” and “will incorporate the traces of the lives of the excellent sons of our State and our people, lost in fierce battles,” he stated. And he highlighted: “This museum, in which the soul of the combatants will rest, is located in the Hwasong area, a symbol of Pyongyang that displays its youthful vigor and modern features, transforming year after year.”
Russia turned to North Korean troops to shore up its positions in the Kursk region, the scene of an incursion by Ukrainian troops in 2024, but has offered little information about this unprecedented alliance. The South Korean Intelligence services estimate that hundreds of North Korean soldiers have lost their lives and that between 10,000 and 12,000 soldiers were initially deployed in the Russian region due to Moscow’s inability to repel the offensive in its own territory, where the Ukrainian army took over about 1,000 square kilometers.
North Korean casualties estimated at more than 6,000
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom Intelligence services estimate that the North Korean Armed Forces have suffered in their deployment in Kursk more than 6,000 casualties between deaths and injuries. According to this estimate, which last Friday he described as “very probable”, in figures it would represent more than half of the 11,000 soldiers that the Kim Jong Un regime sent in the first place.
The military deployment was limited from the beginning to Russian territory. Since then, however, the degree of involvement and work of North Korean troops has varied over time.
The North Korean Army denounced on October 16 that North Korean soldiers participated in surveillance tasks and contributed technically to carrying out Russian attacks already inside Ukraine. As British Intelligence noted in a report released by the Ministry of Defense, this was “the first time” that there was evidence of such direct involvement in offensive actions.
Experts assume that North Korea will try to take advantage of the “opportunities” offered by the conflict when it comes to improving its own military capacity, also in what represents the use and deployment of drones in real combat operations, as would have happened with its alleged collaboration in bombings over the Ukrainian region of Sumi.
