North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian Defence Minister Andrey Belousov have jointly unveiled a memorial in Pyongyang honouring North Korean soldiers who died fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine. The ceremony — which included military jet flybys and the release of white balloons — marked the opening of the Memorial Museum of Combat Feats at the Overseas Military Operations, timed to coincide with what Russia called the first anniversary of recapturing parts of Kursk (a Russian border region that Ukrainian forces had briefly occupied). South Korean intelligence estimates that around 15,000 North Korean troops were deployed to support Russia, with approximately 2,000 killed, though neither Pyongyang nor Moscow has released official figures; in exchange for the soldiers, North Korea is believed to have received food, money, and military-technical assistance from Russia.