North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attended a ceremony welcoming home an army engineering unit that had returned from a deployment in Russia, state media reported on Saturday.
According to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim addressed officers and soldiers of the 528th Regiment of Engineers of the Korean People’s Army, praising their “heroic” conduct during a 120-day overseas mission carried out under orders of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea.
State-released footage showed troops disembarking from an aircraft, Kim embracing a wounded soldier in a wheelchair, and crowds of officials and family members greeting the returning unit in Pyongyang.
KCNA said the regiment was dispatched in early August and carried out combat and engineering operations in Russia’s Kursk region, where Moscow has been fighting Ukrainian forces.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said last month that North Korean troops have been assisting in mine-clearing operations in Kursk after helping repel a major Ukrainian incursion.
Under a mutual defense agreement, North Korea sent an estimated 14,000 soldiers to support Russian forces in the region last year. South Korean, Ukrainian and Western officials estimate that more than 6,000 North Korean troops were killed, though Pyongyang has not confirmed those figures.
Kim said nine soldiers from the regiment died during the mission, calling their deaths a “heartrending loss.” He announced that the unit would receive the Order of Freedom and Independence, while the fallen soldiers were posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, along with other state honors.
The ceremony on Friday was attended by senior military commanders, ruling party officials, families of the soldiers and large public crowds, KCNA said.
In his remarks, Kim said the regiment had cleared hazardous areas under combat conditions and demonstrated “absolute loyalty” to the party and the state. He described the unit’s discipline and ideological unity as a model for the armed forces.
North Korea has increasingly acknowledged and honored its military role in Russia’s war in Ukraine. In recent months, state media have shown Kim praising overseas deployments and presiding over ceremonies believed to mark the return of soldiers killed while fighting alongside Russian forces.