North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has publicly acknowledged for the first time that thousands of troops sent to fight in Ukraine for Russian President Vladimir Putin have suffered significant casualties in Russia’s Kursk region. In a moving ceremony, he honored the lives of 100 soldiers who died while serving the Russian forces, showing visible emotional support for their families. This marks the first time Kim has explicitly stated that more than a few soldiers were killed, though it remains a small fraction of the estimated 600 deaths reported by South Korea earlier this year. The North Korean leader expressed pride in the ‘heroic’ actions of the troops, stating that their efforts in the Kursk region demonstrated the ‘power of the heroic [North Korean] army.’