Kim Jong Un said it’s true that North Korean troops chose ‘self-detonation’ to avoid capture by Ukraine

• Kim Jong Un said this week that his soldiers actually killed themselves at Kursk to avoid capture.

• Some chose to “kill themselves” to preserve their dignity, he said at a memorial opening on Monday.

• His words confirm two chilling tactics that Ukraine says it is observing in 2024.

leader of North Korea, Kim Jong UnHe praised his soldiers in Kursk for choosing “the path of self-detonation” to avoid capture, a practice he said Ukraine was adopting in 2024.

Kim made the statement on Monday during the completion ceremony of a memorial hall for North Korean troops fighting abroad, according to state media.

who praised Troops martyred in Kursk As “heroes who unhesitatingly choose the path of self-explosion and self-killing to preserve great honor.”

The North Korean leader also commemorated soldiers who died “while on the front lines of wars of aggression,” according to state media.

“Even though their bodies were torn apart by bullets and bullets, they were suffering from the disappointment of not being able to fulfill the duty of a soldier who had received orders, rather than the pain inflicted on them,” Kim said.

Bloomberg first reported Kim’s comments this week.

Western and South Korean officials estimate that Pyongyang is sending between 10,000 and 14,000 elite infantrymen to help the Kremlin retake the Russian territory of Kursk, which Ukraine attacked in late 2024.

Kim’s speech confirms two tactics or policies that Ukraine has previously reported observing among North Korean soldiers; these practices attracted global attention at the time for their insight into the ideological commitment of Pyongyang’s full-time soldiers.

First, Ukrainian forces said they could sometimes encounter casualties North Korean infantrymen detonate grenades To their bodies to avoid being caught.

“We see that Russian military personnel and North Korean administrators are not at all interested in the survival of North Koreans,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in December 2024. “Everything is being done in such a way as to make it impossible for us to capture the Koreans.”

Kiev also said North Korean troops would intervene boldly, unlike Russian troops who moved more carefully and in smaller numbers to avoid detection. high-casualty frontal attacks.

By the time Russia retook Kursk in early 2025, Ukrainian and South Korean officials estimated that about 6,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed or wounded.

Pyongyang’s involvement in the war has raised concerns in the West and South Korea that its troops have gained invaluable combat experience, particularly in drone warfare, that North Korea could use in other potential conflicts.

Beyond troop transfers, Russia and North Korea continue to strengthen their economic and military ties. Pyongyang supplies the Kremlin dozens of artillery systems and an arsenal of millions of rounds of ammunition as well as a limited number of short-range ballistic missiles.

Kim made his speech Monday as a visiting Russian delegation, including Moscow Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, attended the ceremony.

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