North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, has praised his soldiers in Kursk for choosing the “path of self-detonation” to avoid capture, confirming a practice that Ukraine said it observed in 2024.
According to state media, Kim made the remarks on Monday during the completion ceremony of a memorial hall for North Korean troops who fought overseas.
Kim lauded his fallen troops in Kursk as “heroes who, in order to safeguard great honor, chose without hesitation the path of self-detonation and self-death.”
Per state media, the North Korean leader also paid tribute to soldiers who died “while charging at the forefront of assault battles.”
“Those who, though their bodies were torn by bullets and shells, writhed more from the frustration of not being able to fulfill the duty of a soldier who had received orders than from the pain inflicted upon them,” Kim was quoted as saying.
Bloomberg first reported on Kim’s comments this week.
Western and South Korean officials have estimated that Pyongyang sent between 10,000 and 14,000 elite infantry to help the Kremlin retake areas of Kursk, a Russian region that Ukraine attacked in late 2024.
Kim’s speech confirms two tactics or policies that Ukraine previously reported observing among North Korean troops — practices that drew global attention at the time for their insight into the ideological commitment of Pyongyang’s full-time soldiers.
For one, Ukrainian forces said they would sometimes encounter wounded North Korean infantry detonating grenades on their bodies to avoid capture.
“We see that Russian military personnel and North Korean supervisors are not at all interested in the survival of North Koreans,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in December 2024. “Everything is done in a way that makes it impossible for us to take Koreans prisoner.”
Kyiv also said that, unlike Russian soldiers, who moved more cautiously and in smaller numbers to avoid detection, North Korean troops would engage boldly in high-casualty, frontal assaults.
By the time Russia retook Kursk in early 2025, Ukrainian and South Korean officials estimated that around 6,000 North Korean soldiers were killed or wounded.
Pyongyang’s involvement in the war has raised concerns in the West and South Korea that its troops have gained invaluable combat experience, especially in drone warfare, that North Korea could use in other potential conflicts.
Russia and North Korea continue to strengthen their economic and military ties beyond the transfer of troops. Pyongyang has been supplying the Kremlin with dozens of artillery systems and millions of shells, as well as a limited arsenal of short-range ballistic missiles.
Kim made his Monday speech as a visiting Russian delegation, including Moscow’s defense minister, Andrei Belousov, attended the ceremony.
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