Overview

• State media published images of a Pyongyang ceremony where Kim decorated returning commanders, placed medals beside portraits of the dead, and consoled bereaved families.
• It was the first time North Korea formally honored soldiers for overseas combat, with photos showing a memorial wall featuring 101 portraits of fallen troops.
• South Korean and Western intelligence estimate North Korea sent more than 10,000 troops to Russia’s Kursk region since late 2024, along with artillery shells, missiles and long-range rocket systems.
• Seoul’s assessments put North Korean losses at about 600 killed and thousands wounded, while North Korea has released names and photos of some of the fallen for the first time.
• Kim urged the Korean People’s Army to perfect war readiness, and South Korea says the ceremony aims to justify the deployment as it monitors possible further dispatches, including reported construction and sapper units for Kursk.