Overview

• State media showed Kim laying flowers at a memorial wall at Workers’ Party headquarters and hosting events for returned troops and bereaved families.
• North Korean outlets displayed 101 named portraits of the dead, the first public acknowledgment of those killed while fighting alongside Russian forces.
• Kim was filmed consoling relatives and awarding medals to surviving commanders from the contingent deployed in Russia’s Kursk region.
• South Korean assessments say roughly 14,000 personnel have been sent since autumn, with thousands of casualties reported and at least hundreds confirmed killed.
• Seoul reports large transfers of munitions to Russia, including short-range rockets, howitzers and rocket launchers, while CNN cites Western intelligence expecting 25,000–30,000 additional North Korean troops could be sent in coming months.