Kim Jong Un praised a North Korean soldier who committed suicide by detonating a grenade while Russia was fighting in Ukraine, confirming a long-suspected battlefield policy.
The North Korean leader said in a speech this week that those who “choose self-destruction and suicide attacks without hesitation to defend the great honor” are “heroes”.
South Korea estimates that at least 15,000 North Koreans have been sent to help Russia regain parts of western Kursk, and more than 6,000 have been killed so far. Neither Pyongyang nor Moscow confirmed the figures.
Intelligence agencies and defectors said Pyongyang ordered the soldiers to commit suicide to avoid being captured by Ukraine.
“Their self-sacrifice without expecting anything in return, their dedication without expecting anything in return… This [is] Kim Jong Un said this on Monday as he unveiled a monument to fallen soldiers in Pyongyang, according to North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency.
Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov and Speaker of the Russian Parliament Vyacheslav Volodin attended the event.
In North Korea, soldiers are taught that being captured is an act of treason.
Earlier this year, South Korean broadcaster MBC aired a program about two North Korean prisoners of war in Ukraine, one of whom said on camera that he regretted not taking his own life.
“Everyone else blew themselves up. I failed,” the prisoner said.
The National Intelligence Service in Seoul said last year it had discovered memos about deceased North Korean soldiers outlining such extreme practices.
In his speech on Monday, Kim Jong Un also praised those who lost their lives in the fighting.
“Those who fell in the charge and those who were frustrated because they failed to fulfill their duties as ordered soldiers, rather than those who suffered from their bodies being torn apart by bullets and shells, can also be called loyal soldiers and patriots of the party,” Kim Jong Un said.
In June 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un signed an agreement pledging that the two countries would help each other if either country suffered “aggression.” At the time, Kim Jong-un praised the treaty as “the strongest in history.”
In addition to sending soldiers, North Korea has pledged to send thousands of workers to help rebuild Kursk.