Kim Jong-un admits North Korean troops clearing landmines for Russia

North Korea sent troops to clear mines in Russia’s Kursk region earlier this year, leader Kim Jong-un said in a speech carried on Saturday by state media, a rare acknowledgement by Pyongyang of the deadly tasks assigned to its deployed soldiers.According to South Korean and western intelligence agencies, North Korea has sent thousands of troops to support Russia’s nearly four-year invasion of Ukraine.Analysts say Russia is giving North Korea financial aid, military technology, food and energy supplies in return, allowing the diplomatically isolated nation to sidestep tough international sanctions on its nuclear and missile programmes.Hailing the return of an engineering regiment, Kim noted that they wrote “letters to their hometowns and villages at breaks of the mine-clearing hours”, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).Nine members of the regiment died during the 120-day deployment that started in August, Kim said in his speech at a welcome ceremony on Friday, KCNA reported.Kim Jong-un at the podium of the welcoming ceremony in front of the April 25 House of Culture in Pyongyang. Photograph: KCNA via KNS/AFP/Getty ImagesHe awarded the deceased state honours to “add eternal lustre” to their bravery.“All of you, both officers and soldiers, displayed mass heroism overcoming unimaginable mental and physical burdens almost every day,” Kim said.The troops had been able to “work a miracle of turning a vast area of danger zone into a safe and secure one in a matter of less than three months”.Images released by KCNA showed a smiling Kim embracing returned soldiers, some of whom appeared injured and in wheelchairs, at the ceremony in Pyongyang on Friday.The North Korean leader with returning soldiers from the engineering regiment in an image released by the official Korean Central News Agency. Photograph: KCNA via KNS/AFP/Getty ImagesOne of them looked visibly emotional as Kim held his head and hand while he sat in a wheelchair in a military uniform.Other images showed Kim consoling families of the deceased and kneeling before a portrait of a fallen soldier to pay his respects, placing what appeared to be medals and flowers beside images of the dead.Kim meeting the families of soldiers who were killed. Photograph: KCNA via KNS/AFP/Getty ImagesThe North Korean leader also mentioned the “pain of waiting for 120 days in which he had never forgotten the beloved sons even for a moment”.In September, Kim appeared alongside China’s leader, Xi Jinping, and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, at an elaborate military parade in Beijing.Kim did not respond to an offer from Donald Trump to meet during the US president’s Asia trip in October.Kim paying his respects in front of portraits of fallen North Korean soldiers at the April 25 House of Culture in Pyongyang. Photograph: KCNA via KNS/AFP/Getty ImagesNorth Korea only confirmed in April that it had deployed troops to support Russia and that its soldiers had been killed in combat.At a previous ceremony in August, images released by KCNA showed an emotional Kim embracing a returned solider who appeared overwhelmed, burying his face in the leader’s chest.In early July, state media showed a visibly emotional Kim honouring flag-draped coffins, apparently of the deceased soldiers returning home.