Overview

• State media broadcast footage of Kim placing flags on coffins of North Korean soldiers killed in Russia’s Kursk region during a gala marking the one-year anniversary of the June 2024 mutual defence treaty.
• South Korea’s defence ministry said it has seen no signs of further troop deployments following Pyongyang’s April admission of combat fatalities in support of Russia.
• The event, attended by Russian Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova, featured a backdrop of wartime imagery including a blood-stained notebook recovered from the battlefield.
• Analysts view the public mourning as a move to reinforce internal solidarity and to signal demands for rewards from Moscow in exchange for Pyongyang’s sacrifices.
• The deepening military partnership, encompassing troop deployments and weapons transfers, has alarmed Seoul and Western allies for breaching UN sanctions.