North Korea's Kim Jong-un meets families of soldiers killed fighting for Russia against Ukraine

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met with families of soldiers killed in overseas military operations, promising them a beautiful life, the state-run media said in a statement released with pictures on Saturday. 

It follows last week's ceremony in the capital, Pyongyang, where Kim paid tribute to soldiers who returned from combat in Ukraine, an event where the North Korean leader was seen sobbing in tears and placing posthumous state awards on the soldiers' corpses.

According to Saturday's statement from the Korean Central News Agency KCNA, Kim expressed deep condolences to all the bereaved families of the officers who fell in the battlegrounds on foreign lands.

The news of the death of your beloved children and husbands must have come as a great shock to you all, since you did not know whether they were alive or not, Kim was quoted as saying.

Our Party and government will bring all the glory to the heroes revered by the whole nation and to their excellent parents who brought them up to be admirable men. They will also do their best to provide you, ahead of others, with a beautiful life in the country defended at the cost of the lives of the martyrs, Kim said.

According to KCNA, Kim presented the photos of the martyrs to the families at a ceremony on Friday at the Mokran House, a venue used for high-level meetings in Pyongyang.

The number of casualties remains unclear

In April, Pyongyang confirmed that it had sent troops to support Russia's war in Ukraine, saying that some of its soldiers had been killed in combat, without specifying the number.

Russian President Vladimir Putin later issued a statement thanking North Korea and promising not to forget the sacrifices of North Korean soldiers.

The North Korean deployment, according to Kim and Putin, was carried out in accordance with their nations' historic 2024 defense treaty, which requires that both sides give assistance in the event of an attack on the other.

Estimates from the United States, South Korea, and Ukraine show North Korea sent between 10,000–12,000 troops to Russia last October.

Pyongyang dispatched over 3,000 more personnel to Russia earlier this year, according to a March statement from South Korea's military.

The number of casualties reported is unclear; however, in April, South Korea’s spy agency claimed an estimated 4,700 North Korean soldiers were reported to have been killed or wounded while fighting alongside Russia against Ukrainian forces.