North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected a museum under construction to honor troops sent to fight for Russia, state media reported Tuesday. In this August photo, Kim meets with bereaved family members at a memorial ceremony in Pyongyang. File photo by KCNA/EPA
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected a memorial museum under construction to honor troops dispatched to fight for Russia in Ukraine, state media reported Tuesday, as Pyongyang steps up efforts to commemorate its involvement in the war.
Kim visited the Memorial Museum of Combat Feats at Overseas Military Operations on Sunday, where construction has reached about 93%, the official Korean Central News Agency said.
The complex includes a “heroes’ cemetery,” an exhibition area displaying captured weapons and other memorial installations, according to KCNA.
Kim toured the site and said the museum should serve as “an aggregate showing the level of our architecture and fine art creation.”
He described the construction as a “noble work for recording in history forever the matchless bravery and mass heroism displayed by our soldiers at overseas military operations.”
The museum is scheduled to open to mark the first anniversary of the “liberation of Kursk,” KCNA said, referring to Russia’s battlefield gains in its war with Ukraine. North Korea declared Russia’s recapture of Kursk on April 27 last year.
The visit follows a series of public moves by Pyongyang in recent months to honor troops deployed to support Russian forces.
In January, Kim attended a groundbreaking ceremony for the museum site alongside his wife, Ri Sol Ju, and daughter, Ju Ae. Last month, he inaugurated a new street in Pyongyang with housing built for families of troops killed overseas.
North Korea has strengthened military ties with Russia since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Pyongyang has sent thousands of containers of munitions and deployed about 15,000 troops to assist Russian forces in the Kursk region, according to South Korea’s National Intelligence Service. The agency said in September that roughly 2,000 of those troops had been killed.
A report released Monday by South Korea’s Institute for National Security Strategy estimated that North Korea may have earned up to $14.4 billion from its involvement in the war, including through arms sales, labor exports and other support.
