​North Korea Honors Its Soldiers Who Fought in Ukraine

In a rare show of public grieving, Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader, knelt before the portraits of 101 North Korean soldiers killed in Russia’s war against Ukraine and hugged their teary relatives, according to photographs displayed in the country’s state media on Friday.

In a ceremony held in the headquarters of his ruling Workers’ Party in Pyongyang, Mr. Kim awarded medals to troops who fought for Russia, as well as the dead, lionizing them as “great heroes and great patriots” or “martyrs,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said.

Mr. Kim said his “heart ached” because he could only meet the dead soldiers in photos. “As I stand in front of the bereaved families of the fallen soldiers, I don’t know how to express my regret and apologies for not being able to protect their precious young lives,” he said.

By publicly paying tributes to the fallen soldiers and honoring the returning soldiers with government medals, Mr. Kim was trying to lift the morale of his people and justify his decision to send troops to aid Russia’s war against Ukraine, South Korean officials told journalists in a briefing on Friday.

Photos carried in state media showed Mr. Kim placing medals on the lapels of officers and soldiers. One image showed Mr. Kim holding the face of a teary young soldier with both hands and hugging him to his chest.

Mr. Kim knelt on one knee when he looked at one of the photos of the dead soldiers, arranged in three rows on a memorial wall. He also bowed to bereaved family members, hugging the young children of the dead soldiers. Some family members wept. A line of soldiers formed, carrying white chrysanthemums to place before the photos of the dead.

The North’s state media quoted Mr. Kim as saying that his country’s overseas military operations had reached a “victorious conclusion.” Some of the North soldiers and officers traveled to Pyongyang from the front line to receive their medals. But the North did not say when the rest of its troops would return home.

North Korea did not say how many of its soldiers had died while fighting for Russia. But South Korean intelligence officials told Parliament in April that North Korean troops were believed to have suffered 4,700 casualties, including 600 deaths.

North Korea has sent an estimated 14,000 to 15,000 troops, as well as large shipments of artillery shells, missiles and other weapons, to aid Russia’s war efforts, according to South Korean, Ukrainian and U.S. officials.

North Korea and Russia had not formally confirmed the deployment of North Korean troops until April. On June 30, North Korean state television showed Mr. Kim looking somber and touching coffins of dead soldiers arriving in Pyongyang.

North Korea has emerged as a key source of badly needed weapons for Russia’s war efforts. After President Vladimir V. Putin met with Mr. Kim in Pyongyang in June last year and signed a treaty of mutual defense and cooperation, North Korea also began sending troops.

In return, the impoverished and heavily sanctions-bound North is believed to have received oil, food and weapons technologies that South Korea and American officials feared would help modernize its military.