Kim Jong-un has praised North Korean soldiers who blew themselves up with grenades in order to avoid capture while fighting Ukrainian forces in Russia’s western Kursk region, confirming the existence of the extreme battlefield policy.

Mounting evidence, including from intelligence reports and testimonies of defectors, has indicated North Korean soldiers are explicitly told to resort to self-detonation or other forms of suicide to avoid falling into enemy hands.

In 2024, North Korea sent about 14,000 elite troops to join Russia’s war against Ukraine. The soldiers were sent into battle around the border town of Sudzha, which Ukrainian forces captured that summer in a surprise mini counter-invasion. According to South Korean and Ukrainian officials, more than 6,000 North Koreans were killed in intense fighting.

Two North Koreans were captured and are being held as prisoners of war in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. Both had tried to blew themselves up but had been unable to do so because of their severe injuries. One of them has expressed guilt at his failure to carry out orders, it is understood.

In a speech addressing Russian officials and bereaved families at the completion ceremony for a memorial honouring North Korean soldiers, Kim mentioned for the first time the lengths to which troops had gone, praising them as heroes, according to a transcript published by the North Korean state news agency KCNA on Monday.

“It is not only the heroes who unhesitatingly chose the path of self-destruction and suicide to defend great honour, but also those who fell while charging at the forefront of assault battles,” he said.

Kim said those who survived were also patriots. “Those who writhed in frustration at failing to fulfil their duty as soldiers rather than suffering the agony of their bodies being torn apart by bullets and shells … these too can be called the party’s loyal warriors and patriots.”

Pyongyang has sent millions of artillery shells and large numbers of short-range ballistic missiles to Russia. In return, it has received economic and military technology assistance from Moscow, according to South Korean intelligence assessments.

Russia’s armed forces recaptured the Ukrainian pocket around Sudzha in spring 2025. The cross-border advance was embarrassing for the Kremlin and the first time that foreign tanks had entered Russian territory since the second world war.