By Kontur | 2025-07-11

At a June concert in Pyongyang, a bloodstained notebook was projected onto a giant screen.

It belonged to a North Korean soldier killed thousands of miles from home, in Kursk province, Russia. Mud and shrapnel smeared the pages, but his handwriting was still legible: a final message praising "supreme leader" Kim Jong Un and pledging to "fight in this sacred battle."

The audience applauded. The state orchestra's music swelled.

This dramatic scene unfolded during a state-sponsored tribute to the hundreds of North Korean soldiers who have died fighting for Russia, signaling that many more will follow.

Pyongyang is expected to send thousands more troops and military laborers to the Russian front as early as July or August, according to the South Korean National Intelligence Service.

"After dispatching 11,000 personnel in October last year, Russia has already announced a second deployment of 4,000 troops, and a further 6,000 construction troops to assist in rebuilding Kursk [Russia]," lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun told reporters in June, as cited by AFP.

Ukrainian forces shocked Russia last August by taking territory in Kursk province, causing North Korea to send troops there in October. The Ukrainians held large parts of the province for seven months.

Earlier this month, a CNN report citing Ukrainian officials suggested North Korea is planning to send as many as 30,000 troops to bolster the Kremlin's effort.

"There is a great possibility" that some North Koreans will be fighting in Ukraine, not just in Ukrainian-held parts of Russia, Ukrainian intelligence predicted, according to CNN.

About 15,000 North Korean personnel have already been deployed to Russia, some in combat roles, others in construction or mine-clearing units, say intelligence reports.

At least 600 have been killed and thousands more wounded.

And yet, rather than curbing involvement, North Korea appears to be escalating it.

Blood for leverage

The war offers Pyongyang something it has lacked since the Korean War: real battlefield experience and the geopolitical clout that comes with it.

"Today, the fighters are learning to operate FPV [first-person view] drones, fiber-optic drones and Mavics here -- and tomorrow, they'll return home and teach the same skills to 10,000 more soldiers," Vladimir Sapunov, a Russian military analyst, told Svobodnaya Pressa in an interview published July 5.

Combat, whether in Russia or Ukraine, provides a live-fire classroom for troops otherwise confined to patrolling the Demilitarized Zone. It gives Kim a chance to trade bodies and artillery for drone technology, electronic warfare systems and satellite-launch assistance -- capabilities he has long coveted.

Russia already has begun transferring key military technologies to North Korea in exchange for munitions and manpower, says South Korean intelligence.

But the learning curve is steep and deadly. North Korean troops are disciplined but outdated, employing World War II-style tactics like advancing in massed foot formations, often unaware of modern threats like drones, say Ukrainian commanders.

Two North Korean soldiers captured earlier this year admitted they thought they were being sent to Russia for training exercises, not to the front.

"Considering the heavy losses and the brutal treatment that North Korean troops have already suffered, Kim Jong-un might be expected to seek the speedy return of his soldiers rather than preparing to send more of their comrades to fight with Russia," Jennifer Mathers, a senior lecturer in international politics at Aberystwyth University in Wales, wrote in The Conversation in February.

"But high casualties on the battlefield seems to be a price that North Korea's president is willing to pay for combat experience that might give his army an edge in any future war that he fights on his own behalf."

Mythmaking in real time

Despite these losses -- or perhaps because of them -- Kim has embraced the deaths as a propaganda opportunity.

In April, North Korea publicly confirmed its combat role in Russia for the first time and quickly began weaving the fallen into its national mythology.

At the commemorative concert in Pyongyang, photos of soldiers killed in action were broadcast on giant screens, set to orchestral music. One image showed Kim placing his hands on a coffin draped in the national flag. The concert coincided with the anniversary of the 2024 North Korea-Russia strategic partnership pact, which includes a mutual defense clause.

The campaign to honor the dead is not limited to performances. Moscow and Pyongyang have announced plans to construct permanent memorials to North Korean soldiers who "liberated" Kursk province, Russia.

Kim, in official statements, has called the fallen "heroes of our nation" and vowed to "immortalize their memory."

With its own war losses mounting, Russia is welcoming the help. The Kremlin is working quickly to deepen the ties with North Korea.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was scheduled to fly to Pyongyang for a second round of strategic talks July 11-13. The planned talks follow multiple trips by Security Council chief Sergei Shoigu, who announced the latest deployment of North Korean builders and sappers during a recent one-day summit.

Flights between the two capitals are now running twice a week. Cultural delegations are traveling back and forth. And Kim himself is expected to travel to Russia again for a summit with President Vladimir Putin, likely to further institutionalize what has become a state-to-state pipeline of weapons, workers and war dead.