Kim Jong Un covered a coffin with earth himself while guards fired a rifle salute. The burial rite for repatriated remains came at the end of a ceremony in Pyongyang on Sunday, April 26, where North Korea opened the Memorial Museum of Combat Feats at the Overseas Military Operations.
Two senior Russians stood beside him: Defense Minister Andrei Belousov and State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin. State media reported the event on Monday.
A letter from Putin
The date was chosen on purpose. It fell one year after Russia’s recapture of Kursk region from Ukrainian forces on April 26, 2025, which Pyongyang calls the “liberation” of Kursk. North Korea has sent around 15,000 combat troops and conventional weapons to Russia since 2024, according to the Korea Times.
Volodin read out a letter from Vladimir Putin that praised the “militant friendship” between the two countries and said Korean soldiers “displayed their extraordinary bravery and genuine devotion,” UPI reported. Officials then cut a ribbon, and white balloons went up for the dead.
Kim called the Kursk operations strategically important and said the soldiers’ actions were “without parallel in history.” His message to Moscow was blunt. “No matter how the rules of war change and whenever and wherever a crisis occurs, we should be strengthened into a sincere, dedicated and powerful bulwark,” he said, as quoted by the Korea Times from the state news agency KCNA. He pledged that North Korea would fully support Russia in defending its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
A plan through 2031
Kim also met Belousov and Volodin separately. With Belousov he discussed political and military cooperation and mutual assistance, KCNA said. Russia’s Tass agency quoted Belousov as saying Russia was ready to sign a military cooperation plan for 2027-2031. UPI reported that Belousov described the agreement as expanding cooperation on a “sustainable long-term basis.”
In his talk with Volodin, Kim read the sending of such a high-level delegation as proof that Moscow wants closer ties, KCNA reported.
The partnership rests on a mutual defense treaty that Kim and Putin signed in Pyongyang in June 2024. Casualty estimates vary. South Korea’s National Intelligence Service put the number of North Korean dead at roughly 2,000, according to UPI. The Korea Times cited the same spy agency as estimating about 6,000 killed or injured.
South Korea’s Institute for National Security Strategy estimated that Pyongyang may have earned up to $14.4 billion from arms sales, labor exports and related assistance tied to the war.
Sources
- North Korea inaugurates memorial for troops killed in Ukraine
- N. Korea opens memorial honoring own troops killed in Russia's war with Ukraine
