By Gloria Ogbonna
North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un staged a highly choreographed welcome-back ceremony this weekend for soldiers who had been deployed to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, openly acknowledging the return of a specialized regiment believed to have been operating in active combat zones where at least nine North Korean troops were killed.
According to North Korea’s state-run media, the unit consisted not of frontline infantry but of elite military engineers, reportedly tasked with hazardous operations such as clearing landmines.
Kim confirmed that the regiment had been working in Russia’s Kursk region, an area that Ukrainian forces counter-invaded last year in an effort to disrupt Moscow’s ongoing military campaign.
In a speech published in full in English by the North Korean Foreign Ministry, Kim lavished praise on the returning soldiers, portraying their mission as both heroic and decisive.
He described the troops as having been “courageous and responsible all the time,” claiming they had performed nothing short of a “miracle” by transforming dangerous, mined territory into safe ground in a matter of months.
“Early in August you, engineers of the regiment, left for the Kursk region of the Russian Federation, which your comrades-in-arms had retaken at the cost of their lives,” Kim said, addressing both the soldiers and assembled officials at the ceremony. “You achieved brilliant results in the course of performing your combat tasks there.”
Kim emphasized the physical and psychological strain faced by the unit, asserting that officers and soldiers alike demonstrated “mass heroism” while enduring “unimaginable mental and physical burdens almost every day.”
“As all of you displayed extraordinary devotion,” he claimed, “you could work a miracle of turning a vast area of danger zone into a safe and secure one in a matter of less than three months.”
He also acknowledged the fatalities, though in characteristically restrained terms. “Except the heartrending loss of nine lives, all the officers and soldiers of the regiment have returned to the motherland,” Kim said, adding that he expressed his gratitude for their service.
The North Korean leader used the occasion to attack Western militaries, declaring that “the armed villains of the West, armed with whatever latest military hardware they are, cannot match this revolutionary army with an unfathomable spiritual depth.”
South Korea’s Korea JoongAng Daily reported that the regiment was deployed to Kursk primarily for missions such as mine clearance, as part of Russia’s broader effort to consolidate control over occupied Ukrainian territory.
The paper cited expert analysis suggesting that the public celebration was designed to demonstrate that North Korea’s involvement in the war has been both meaningful and technically sophisticated, rather than limited to providing expendable manpower.
Professor Lim Eul-chul of Kyungnam University noted that the tasks described by Kim went far beyond basic construction work. “This was not a simple engineering project,” he said, “but part of a strategic, high-difficulty military operation.”
Russia’s war against Ukraine began in 2014 with the seizure of Crimea and escalated into a full-scale invasion in 2022, when President Vladimir Putin launched what Moscow termed a “special military operation.”
In addition to the first captured soldiers from North Korea, there will undoubtedly be more. It’s only a matter of time before our troops manage to capture others. There should be no doubt left in the world that the Russian army is dependent on military assistance from North… pic.twitter.com/4RyCfUoHoC
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) January 12, 2025
Since then, Putin has claimed to annex large portions of eastern and southern Ukraine, including the Donbass, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions, while Russian forces continue to strike Ukrainian cities despite intermittent talk of peace negotiations.
Putin’s deepening alliance with Pyongyang became more visible in June 2024, when he traveled to North Korea and signed a mutual defense pact with Kim in the capital. South Korean intelligence agencies began documenting North Korean military involvement in the conflict later that year, a finding confirmed publicly by the U.S. State Department in November 2024.
“Today I can confirm that over 10,000 DPRK soldiers have been sent to eastern Russia,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said at the time. “Most of them have moved to the far western Kursk Oblast, where they have begun engaging in combat operations with Russian forces.”
By January, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky released video footage purporting to show captured North Korean soldiers taken prisoner on the battlefield, further substantiating claims of Pyongyang’s direct military role.
While North Korea has since acknowledged sending troops to assist Russia, it has not disclosed exact numbers. Intelligence estimates suggest as many as 15,000 North Korean fighters may have been deployed. In July, Kim held a televised memorial event honoring soldiers killed in Russia and Ukraine, featuring dramatic scenes of the dictator appearing emotional as coffins draped in North Korean flags were brought home.
Just weeks later, Kim again extolled what he called his “heroic army,” declaring it the strongest military force on earth.
“Such a result has cemented its appellation and reputation as the most powerful army in the world,” Kim claimed. “Our army is now doing what it ought to do and what needs to be done. It will do so in the future, too.”
Ukraine’s intelligence services have also warned that Pyongyang’s support extends beyond manpower. In October, officials estimated that North Korea may be supplying up to half of Russia’s ammunition needs. Oleh Alexandrov of Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service told state outlet Ukrinform that Pyongyang was providing between 200,000 and 260,000 artillery shells per month, including 152 mm and 122 mm rounds.
Alexandrov suggested that both Moscow and Pyongyang are using the war as a testing ground to refine North Korean weapons under real combat conditions—further deepening concerns that the conflict is accelerating military cooperation between two heavily sanctioned regimes.
Source Breitbrat
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