North Korea opens new housing area for families of soldiers killed overseas 

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has opened a new housing district in Pyongyang for families of soldiers killed while fighting overseas amid the East Asian country’s support for Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Kim said Saeppyol Street was “a source of honour for our generation and a pride of Pyongyang and our state”, North Korean newspaper Rodong Sinmun reported on Monday.

“He prayed for the immortality of the martyrs along with its inauguration which will etch the martyrs’ names and images in history,” it added.

While the report did not mention Russia, Kim last week pledged to “unconditionally support” all of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s policies and decisions.

Under a mutual defence pact with Moscow, Pyongyang dispatched thousands of soldiers to Ukraine in 2024, according to South Korean, Ukrainian and Western officials.

Kim said he had pushed to finish the project “even one day earlier” in the hope it might bring “some small comfort” to the soldiers’ families, state-run Korean Central News Agency reported.

Photographs released by KCNA showed Kim, accompanied by his daughter Ju Ae, consoling family members of the fallen soldiers and visiting their newly completed homes.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told legislators last week it estimated 6,000 North Korean soldiers have been killed or wounded during their deployment in the war against Ukraine, but did not provide a breakdown of deaths.

South Korea’s spy agency has also warned that North Korean forces are gaining modern combat experience and benefitting from Russian technical assistance that could enhance Pyongyang’s weapons systems.

In addition to deploying troops, Pyongyang is thought to have shipped artillery shells, missiles and long-range rocket systems to Moscow, while receiving cash, military know-how, and food and energy shipments from Russia in return.

North Korea has staged multiple public ceremonies in recent months to honour its war dead, including the unveiling of a ‌new memorial complex in Pyongyang adorned with soldiers’ sculptures.

The rollout comes in advance of Pyongyang’s biggest political event on the calendar – the party congress – later this month, although the exact date has not been announced.