For the first time since its founding in 1948, North Korea has openly acknowledged the deaths of its soldiers fighting on foreign soil with a carefully staged ceremony that analysts say betrays supreme leader Kim Jong-un’s deepening domestic anxieties.
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Kim embraced weeping children, affixed medals to portraits of the dead and even appeared to wipe away tears as he honoured more than 100 North Korean troops killed in Russia’s war at the event on Friday.
Though 101 portraits were visible in the footage, state media did not confirm how many soldiers had been killed.
Calling the fallen “great heroes and patriots”, Kim singled out soldiers who had taken their own lives rather than risk capture, praising them for their “morality”. His remarks echoed the testimony of former North Korean prisoners of war, who have described being indoctrinated to view capture as treason.
Kim Jong-un decorates soldiers who fought for Russia
Kim Jong-un decorates soldiers who fought for Russia
State television devoted a full day of programming to the sacrifices of troops deployed to the conflict, including graphic battlefield footage that was broadcast late into the night. The images showed soldiers writhing in pain and trading fire with Ukrainian drones, as the narration recounted several cases of troops detonating their own grenades to avoid capture.
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