Overview

• State media said Kim Jong-un met bereaved families, expressed sorrow over the deaths, and pledged a “beautiful life” for them.
• North Korean television aired a 25‑minute program showing soldiers purportedly in the “Operation of Liberation of Kursk,” which Reuters could not verify.
• KCNA reported the decision to deploy troops was made in August, two months after Kim and Vladimir Putin signed a security pact with a mutual defense clause.
• Pyongyang and Moscow have not disclosed totals, while South Korea’s intelligence estimates about 600 deaths from roughly 15,000 deployed and Western assessments exceed 6,000 casualties.
• Kim and Putin are scheduled to appear together at a military parade in China next week, highlighting their tightening military alignment.