Overview
- State media said Kim inspected the Memorial Museum of Combat Feats at Overseas Military Operations on Jan. 5 and joined a tree-planting ceremony at the site.
- KCNA photographs showed Ri Sol-ju and Kim Ju-ae attending, with Ju-ae taking part in the groundwork alongside her father.
- The project is the country’s first museum dedicated to personnel who died while serving overseas with Russian forces, according to the reports.
- South Korea’s National Intelligence Service estimates roughly 15,000 North Korean troops have been sent to support Russian operations, with about 2,000 fatalities reported by the agency.
- Analysts view the timing—overlapping with the Lee Jae Myung–Xi Jinping summit—as a political signal toward Russia and China, while a Seoul unification ministry official says Ju-ae’s prominence reflects ‘socialist great family’ messaging rather than formal succession.