Kim Jong Un (AP image)
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un promised “a beautiful life” for the families of “martyrs” who perished fighting for Russia in the war against Ukraine, state media said on Saturday, praising the bereaved for the heroism of their sons and husbands.The country will “provide you with a beautiful life in the country defended at the cost of the lives of the martyrs,” he said.Kim on Friday hosted the families of soldiers and expressed “grief at having failed to save the precious lives” of the fallen men who sacrificed their lives to defend the country’s honor, CNN reported quoting KCNA state news agency.He told the parents, wives and children that the bravery of the soldiers was made possible by the strength and courage they received from their families, whom he praised as “the most resilient, patriotic, and righteous people in the world.”The North Korean leader promised the families that the state would care for their well-being, saying the fallen soldiers had left their loved ones in his charge. State television showed him bowing deeply before the grieving relatives.The meeting was the latest honoring of troops who suffered heavy casualties in Russia’s Kursk region that borders Ukraine, after Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged the deployment in April after months of silence. State television on Saturday aired a 25-minute documentary that included footage of soldiers purportedly taking part in “Operation Kursk Liberation” to drive Ukrainian troops from the Russian region bordering Ukraine.According to the documentary, Kim made the decision to deploy troops to Russia last August, revealing for the first time that the move was made two months after he and Putin signed a security treaty that included a mutual defense pact.Kim is due to join Putin in China at a military parade next week marking the surrender of Japan in World War Two. It will be their third meeting in two years as they dramatically elevated a military alliance.The two countries have not publicly disclosed the scale of the deployment or casualties suffered by North Korean troops. About 600 have been killed out of a total deployment of 15,000, according to South Korea’s intelligence agency.There have been estimates by Western intelligence of more than 6,000 casualties.
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