Kim Jong Un participates in newest public occasion to honour North Korean troops who served with Russian forces in conflict towards Ukraine.
Printed On 13 Dec 2025
North Korea’s chief Kim Jong Un has hugged injured troopers in wheelchairs at a ceremony within the capital, Pyongyang, to welcome residence troops who served with Russian forces within the conflict towards Ukraine.
State-run Korean Central Information Company mentioned on Saturday that Kim praised the “mass heroism” of the returning 528th Regiment of Engineers of the Korean Folks’s Military, which had served in Russia’s Kursk region.
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Kim hailed the regiment’s conduct throughout its 120-day abroad deployment, which commenced in early August and concerned fight and engineering duties, together with mine clearing within the Kursk area of Russia, the place Ukrainian forces had infiltrated and occupied for months earlier than withdrawing.
“You might work a miracle of turning an unlimited space of hazard zone right into a protected and safe one in a matter of lower than three months, the duty which was believed to be unimaginable to be carried out even in a number of years,” Kim mentioned, in keeping with South Korea’s Yonhap information company.
“The armed villains of the West, armed with no matter newest army {hardware} they’re, can’t match this revolutionary military with an unfathomable non secular depth,” Kim added on the ceremony on Friday.
The North’s chief additionally spoke of the “heartrending loss” of 9 members of the regiment and introduced that the unit could be conferred with the Order of Freedom and Independence. The deceased troops would even be honoured with the title Hero of the Democratic Folks’s Republic of Korea, KCNA mentioned, referring to North Korea’s official title.
Video footage of the ceremony launched by North Korea confirmed uniformed troopers disembarking from an plane and Kim embracing troopers seated in wheelchairs, as different troopers and officers gathered to welcome the troops.
The Russian Ministry of Defence confirmed final month that North Korean troops, who had helped Russia repel Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk, have been now concerned in clearing the world of mines.
Concluding a key assembly of his ruling Staff’ Social gathering of Korea on Thursday, Kim additionally praised the deployment of North Korean troops in assist of Russia’s conflict on Ukraine, saying it “demonstrated to the world the status of our military”.
North Korea’s “ever-victorious military” was the “real protector of worldwide justice”, Kim mentioned.
Underneath a mutual defence pact between Moscow and Pyongyang, an estimated 14,000 North Korean troopers have been deployed to combat for Russia, with the variety of these killed or wounded ranging between 3,000 and 4,000.
The welcoming ceremony held on Friday marks the newest occasion to publicly honour North Korean troopers who served in Russia’s conflict on Ukraine.
In October, Kim was featured embracing weeping troopers at a ground-breaking ceremony for a deliberate memorial to those that fought for Russia, and in June, state media confirmed Kim draping coffins with the nationwide flag in what seemed to be the repatriation of troopers’ stays from Russia.
