Overview

• State media said Kim hosted a second ceremony in Pyongyang to honor troops who fought in Russia, presenting portraits of the dead to bereaved families after a first event last week that displayed 101 fallen soldiers.
• Kim announced a commemorative Saebyol Street in Pyongyang’s Taesong district, with an arboretum burial site for the dead and a monument recognizing their combat service.
• He vowed to send the fallen soldiers’ children to revolutionary schools and said the state would take full responsibility for their upbringing.
• Pyongyang has not disclosed deployment or casualty figures; outside estimates cite roughly 13,000–15,000 North Korean personnel sent since late 2024 and assessments ranging from about 600 killed, per South Korea’s intelligence service, to several thousand total casualties from Western sources.
• The events come days before Kim’s planned trip to China to attend a large military parade alongside Xi and Putin, highlighting deepening North Korea–Russia military cooperation that has included conventional weapons transfers.