In a high-profile public event that has drawn international attention, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has publicly celebrated North Korean troops who carried out suicide attacks using hand grenades while fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine, formally confirming an extreme battlefield policy that intelligence communities have suspected for months.
The comments, delivered during a Monday ceremony unveiling a memorial for fallen North Korean soldiers in Pyongyang, were carried by North Korean state media outlet KCNA. Kim labeled troops who “unhesitatingly opted for self-blasting suicide attacks to defend the great honor” of the country as true heroes, and framed their actions as the pinnacle of military loyalty. “Their self-sacrifice expecting no compensation, and the devotion expecting no reward… This [is] the definition of the height of loyalty of our army,” Kim told attendees, which included top Russian officials: Russian Defence Minister Andrey Belousov and State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin.
South Korean intelligence estimates that Pyongyang has deployed at least 15,000 troops to support Russia’s efforts to retake territory in western Kursk Oblast, with more than 6,000 of those service members killed in combat to date. Neither North Korea nor Russia has publicly verified these casualty and deployment figures. Multiple intelligence agencies and North Korean defectors have long corroborated that North Korean troops are under standing orders to take their own lives rather than allow themselves to be captured by Ukrainian forces. Within North Korea’s military doctrine, capture by enemy forces is classified as an act of treason against the state and ruling party.
Evidence of this policy has emerged through multiple channels in recent months. Last year, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service recovered handwritten orders from deceased North Korean soldiers that explicitly outlined the requirement for self-harm to avoid capture. Earlier this year, South Korean broadcaster MBC released an interview with two North Korean prisoners of war held by Ukraine, where one fighter expressed open regret for failing to take his own life, saying, “Everyone else blew themselves up. I failed.”
Beyond his praise for suicide attackers, Kim also extended recognition to all troops who have died in combat in Ukraine. He noted that even those who fell while leading frontline charges, or who died frustrated at failing to complete their assigned duties rather than mourning their physical wounds from bullets and shrapnel, deserve recognition as faithful party warriors and patriots.
The public commemoration comes amid rapidly deepening military and political cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow. In June 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un signed a mutual defense pact that committed both nations to provide mutual assistance in the event of armed aggression against either party, with Kim describing the agreement as the “strongest ever” bilateral treaty between the two countries. Beyond deploying combat troops to support Russia’s war effort, North Korea has also pledged to send thousands of civilian workers to assist with reconstruction efforts in war-damaged Kursk Oblast.