Last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un confirmed that North Korean troops faced with capture while fighting in the war between Russia and Ukraine resort to suicide. Bloomberg reported on Kim’s comments, citing the North Korean state news agency KCNA.
Kim Jong Un mentioned the practice of suicide at the unveiling of a memorial in Pyongyang dedicated to North Korean soldiers killed in Russia’s war against Ukraine. He referred at least twice to soldiers who carried out “self-blasting” to avoid capture, calling them “heroes who unhesitatingly opted for self-blasting, suicide attack, in order to defend the great honor... did not expect any compensation, though they performed distinguished feats. They died a heroic death.”
Western officials had previously stated that North Korean soldiers were committing suicide on the battlefield to avoid capture by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. In late 2024, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said there had been several cases in which North Korean soldiers took their own lives to avoid capture — “likely out of fear of reprisal against their families in North Korea in the event that they’re captured.”
In addition, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in December 2024 that Russian troops and North Korean commanders were “doing everything” to ensure that the soldiers could not be taken prisoner:
“We see that Russian military personnel and North Korean supervisors are not at all interested in the survival of North Koreans. Everything is done in a way that makes it impossible for us to take Koreans prisoner: [the wounded] are finished off — there have been such cases. And the Russians send them into assaults with minimal protection.”
However, prior to Kim’s comments, there had been no official confirmation of the practice.
On April 26, Pyongyang hosted a ceremony to unveil a memorial complex and museum dedicated to North Korean soldiers who took part in combat operations against the Ukrainian army. In 2024 alone, North Korea sent about 11,000 troops to Russia to participate in the fighting, of whom, according to NATO, around 1,500 were killed. North Korean authorities only confirmed the deployment of their troops in 2025, saying their forces were carrying out a “sacred mission.”
