Thousands of North Koreans Fought for Russia; Memorial Hints at Death Toll

A new memorial in Pyongyang offers a grim, albeit indirect, glimpse into the human cost of North Korea's military support for Russia's war in Ukraine. While Pyongyang remains characteristically tight-lipped about casualties, a BBC investigation, analyzing satellite imagery and official photos of the 'Memorial Museum of Combat Feats at Overseas Military Operations,' estimates that around 2,300 North Korean soldiers perished. This figure, derived from the sheer number of names meticulously engraved on the memorial walls, suggests a significant commitment of personnel and a substantial loss of life.

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The memorial walls are packed with the names of deceased soldiers written in extremely small characters. Considering the surface area and text density, the number of people recorded there is likely to reach several thousand.

The deployment of North Korean troops to the Kursk region, reportedly numbering around 2,300, was a strategic move by Kim Jong Un, ostensibly in exchange for vital food, financial aid, and technical assistance from Moscow. This arrangement highlights the deep interdependence between the two nations, particularly in the face of international sanctions and isolation. For North Korea, it represents a high-stakes gamble, leveraging its military manpower to secure essential resources for its struggling economy and population.

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The memorial consists of two 30m (98ft) long memorial walls engraved with names, a building and a cemetery.

From a North Korean perspective, the narrative surrounding these soldiers is one of sacrifice and unwavering loyalty to the state and its allies. State media, such as KCNA, frames their deployment as an act of "unrivalled bravery" in service of a 'liberation' effort. This official framing starkly contrasts with Western media's likely focus on the illegality of the deployment and the human rights implications. The memorial, therefore, serves a dual purpose: to ostensibly honor the fallen, but more importantly, to reinforce the state's control over the narrative and to project an image of national strength and international solidarity, even as the true scale of the losses remains a closely guarded secret.

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The memorial museum of combat feats at overseas military operations aims to convey the "unrivalled bravery" of North Korean soldiers during their deployment to "liberate [the] Kursk region".