Kim Jong-un strolls through a new neighborhood in Pyongyang, inspecting each newly built home and stopping in front of families who have lost sons and husbands in the Ukraine war. By his side, his daughter Kim Ju Ae accompanies him in a carefully choreographed event. Kim promises to honor the "young martyrs" who "sacrificed everything for their homeland".
With these images, North Korea has announced the completion of a new residential district in the capital intended for the families of North Korean soldiers who died while fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine. The project was presented by the regime as a tribute to the fallen in a conflict that is very distant to the North Koreans.
Kim stated that the new neighborhood, located in the Hawasong area, symbolizes the "spirit and sacrifice" of the troops. The dictator affirmed that the goal is to allow grieving families to "feel proud" and be able to "live happily". He even emphasized that he had pushed to finish the project urgently, hoping to offer "some small comfort".
This type of gesture fits into the North Korean propaganda tradition, which turns the construction of homes or monuments into political acts aimed at reinforcing the legitimacy of leadership and projecting the image of a State that protects those who serve the nation. In recent months, Kim has presided over other events where sculptures and a commemorative wall dedicated to fallen soldiers have been presented.
According to estimates from intelligence sources in neighboring South Korea, around 14,000 North Korean soldiers would have been deployed under a mutual defense pact signed between Kim and Vladimir Putin in 2024, with over 6,000 casualties among North Korean ranks. Last year, the South Korean agency stated that they believed approximately 600 had died.
As South Korean spies assured last week, there are currently about 10,000 North Korean combat soldiers and 1,000 engineer soldiers stationed on the front lines in the Russian region of Kursk. "Around 1,100 soldiers who returned to North Korea from the front in December 2025 could be sent back to Russia to participate in the war," a report points out.
Seoul observers claim that in recent months, Pyongyang has continued to send soldiers and large amounts of weaponry - including artillery and missiles - to support Russia.
"The army and people of North Korea will invariably support and encourage the just cause of the Russian army and people to defend their sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity," the North Korean leader has stated on several occasions.
Last year, state media broadcast images of a sorrowful Kim squatting and embracing an orphaned girl whose father, a soldier who had died fighting on the Kursk front. The propaganda portrayed this gesture as evidence of the leader's closeness and commitment to those who sacrificed their lives for the homeland. Kim also participated in a ceremony where he placed badges on the photos and uniforms of the deceased soldiers, after which a concert and banquet were held in tribute to the troops.
The recent images of Kim's walk through the new neighborhood in Pyongyang for the families of the deceased soldiers come before the regime celebrates a major congress of the ruling Workers' Party, where Kim is expected to announce his main political, economic, and military objectives for the next five years.