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North Korean chief Kim Jong-un on Friday appeared to acknowledge for the primary time that the troops he despatched to combat Ukraine for Russian President Vladimir Putin have suffered losses en masse.
In a ceremony depicting the faces of 100 North Korean troopers and attended by their members of the family, Kim honored the “heroic” troopers whereas he hugged youngsters and appeared tearful.
Kim first acknowledged that he despatched hundreds of troops to combat for Putin in Russia’s Kursk area in April earlier than then acknowledging there had been some deaths in early July when he was proven mourning over coffins with North Korean flags draped over them.
North Korean tyrant Kim Jong Un hugs surviving troopers despatched to combat for Vladimir Putin in Kursk area bordering Ukraine, in ceremony in North Korea on Aug. 22, 2025. (East2West)
However the ceremony on Friday is the primary time he has acknowledged that greater than a handful of troopers have been killed — although it’s nonetheless solely a fraction of the roughly 600 troops killed within the Kursk combat that South Korea’s intelligence reported earlier this yr.
The South Korean Nationwide Intelligence Service (NIS) stated in April that of the 15,000 North Korean troops despatched to combat in Russia, there have been some 4,700 casualties.
“The fight actions of abroad operational forces… proved with out remorse the facility of the heroic [North Korean] military,” Kim stated, in keeping with East2West information service. “The liberation of Kursk proved the combating spirit of the heroes.”
Russian forces are assessed to have largely retaken Kursk after Ukraine launched a cross-border operation in Russia in August 2024, although reviews verify that combating within the space persists as Ukrainian forces proceed to interact with Russian forces within the area.
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North Korean tyrant Kim Jong Un hugs surviving troopers despatched to combat for Vladimir Putin in Kursk area bordering Ukraine, in ceremony in North Korea on Aug. 22, 2025. (East2West)
The Ukrainian Normal Employees on Thursday stated that Ukraine’s Unmanned Programs Forces (USF), together with different unspecified Ukrainian forces, performed long-range drone strikes towards the Novoshakhtinsky Oil Refinery, which provides Russian forces working in Ukraine and is one in every of southern Russia’s largest oil product producers, processing some 7.5 million tons of oil yearly, reported the Institute for the Examine of Struggle.
As much as 12,000 North Korean troops have been despatched to Kursk within the fall of 2024, earlier than one other 3,000 have been deployed in early 2025 to counter Ukraine’s operation. It’s unclear what number of North Korean troops stay within the southwest Russian area.
Reviews earlier this yr urged that North Korea could look to ship extra troops to assist Moscow by the tip of the summer season, although it’s unclear if any extra overseas troopers have been deployed to Russia.
North Korean tyrant Kim Jong Un hugs surviving troopers despatched to combat for Vladimir Putin in Kursk area bordering Ukraine, in ceremony in North Korea on Aug. 22, 2025. (East2West)
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On Friday, Kim urged that North Korea’s involvement in Russia’s battle towards Ukraine may very well be coming to a detailed and hailed the “victorious conclusion of abroad army operations.”
Although it’s also unclear if this implies troops already deployed to Russia is also returned residence quickly.
