The North Korean leader admits mass victims of Ukrainian fights

On Friday, the North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un seemed to recognize for the first time that the troops he sent to fight Ukraine for Russian President Vladimir Putin suffered mass losses.

During a ceremony representing the faces of 100 North Korean soldiers assisted by family members, Kim honored the “heroic” soldiers while he hugged children and seemed in tears.

Kim first recognized that he had sent thousands of soldiers to fight for Putin in the Russian Kursk region in April before recognizing that there had been deaths in early July, when he was shown in mourning on coffins with North Korean draped flags.

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The North Korean tyrant Kim Jong an embraces of surviving soldiers sent to fight for Vladimir Putin in the Kursk region bordering Ukraine, in ceremony in North Korea on August 22, 2025. (East2west)

But Friday’s ceremony is the first time that he recognizes that more than one handful of soldiers were killed – although it was only a fraction of around 600 soldiers killed in Kursk fight that South Korea intelligence reported earlier this year.

The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) said in April that of the 15,000 North Korean troops sent to fight in Russia, there were around 4,700 victims.

“The combat activities of operational forces abroad … have proven without regretting the power of the heroic army (North Korean),” said Kim, according to East2west News Service. “The release of Kursk has proven the fighting spirit of the heroes.”

The Russian forces are deemed largely withdrawn from Kursk after Ukraine launched a cross -border operation in Russia in August 2024, although reports confirm that fighting in the region persist while Ukrainian forces continue to engage with Russian forces in the region.

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The North Korean tyrant Kim Jong an embraces of surviving soldiers sent to fight for Vladimir Putin in the Kursk region bordering Ukraine, in ceremony in North Korea on August 22, 2025. (East2west)

Ukrainian general staff said Thursday that Ukraine’s unmanned system (USF) forces, as well as other unspecified Ukrainian forces, have carried out long -range drone strikes against Novoshakhtinsky oil refinery, which provides Russian forces operating in Ukraine and is one of the oil producers in South Russia, dealing 7.5 million oil.

Up to 12,000 North North Korean troops were sent to Kursk in the fall of 2024, before 3,000 others were deployed at the beginning of 2025 to counter the exploitation of Ukraine. We do not know how many North Korean troops remain in the Southwest Russia region.

Reports earlier this year suggested that North Korea could seek to send additional troops to help Moscow by the end of the summer, although it is not clear if additional foreign soldiers have been deployed in Russia.

The North Korean tyrant Kim Jong an embraces of surviving soldiers sent to fight for Vladimir Putin in the Kursk region bordering Ukraine, in ceremony in North Korea on August 22, 2025. (East2west)

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Friday, Kim suggested that the involvement of North Korea in the Russian war against Ukraine could end and praised the “victorious conclusion of military operations abroad”.

Although it is not difficult to know if it means that the troops already deployed in Russia could also have returned home soon.