Kim said that “heroes” are those who “choose suicide without hesitation… to defend the great honor”, Photo: Reuters via KCNA
Kim Jong Un praised North Korean soldiers who committed suicide by detonating grenades while fighting on Russia’s side in Ukraine.
Thus, he confirmed the assumptions that this is a practice at the front.
“They are heroes because they chose without hesitation to blow themselves up to defend a great honor,” the North Korean leader said in a speech this week.
South Korea estimates that at least 15,000 North Korean troops have been sent to help Russia defend parts of Russia’s Kursk border region, and that more than 6,000 have died so far.
Neither Pyongyang nor Moscow have confirmed these claims.
Intelligence agencies and defectors claim that Pyongyang has ordered soldiers to commit suicide if they face capture.
“For their self-sacrifice, they did not expect compensation, nor did they expect a reward for their dedication… This is an indication of how great the loyalty of our military is,” Kim said in Pyongyang during the unveiling of a monument to fallen soldiers, state media KCNA reported.
The event was attended by the Russian Minister of Defense Andrey Belusov and the Speaker of the Duma (Russian Parliament) Vyacheslav Volodin.
Being captured is considered an act of treason in North Korea.
North Korean broadcaster MBC showed two earlier this year North Korean prisoners of war in Ukraine one of whom said he regretted not taking his own life.
“Everyone else blew themselves up. I didn’t make it,” he said.
South Korea’s state intelligence agency announced last year that they had found documents pointing to these extreme moves in the possession of deceased North Korean soldiers.
Kim also praised those who died in the fighting.
“Those who fell in the front lines of the charge and those who writhed in frustration at failing to fulfill their military duty, not from the pain of their bodies torn apart by bullets and shells, they too can be called loyal party fighters and patriots,” Kim said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un signed in June 2024 an agreement in which they committed themselves to mutual aid in the event of “aggression” to one of two countries (Russia or North Korea).
At the time, Kim said the agreement was “never stronger.”
In addition to soldiers, North Korea has promised to send thousands of workers to help rebuild Kursk.
In August 2024, Ukrainian units invaded the Russian border region of Kurskoccupying a certain territory.
The Russians tried to suppress the Ukrainians for more than six months, and they succeeded in the spring of 2025.
Ukrainian soldiers testified about the chaotic retreat from that Russian border area.
Putin visited Kursk in May 2025.
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