Seoul, May 2: In 2024, Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, deployed around 14,000 troops to support Russia’s war against Ukraine. The forces were engaged in combat near the border town of Sudzha, which Ukrainian troops had seized during a surprise counteroffensive that summer.

Intelligence reports suggest that North Korea has explicitly instructed its soldiers to resort to self-detonation or other forms of suicide rather than risk capture by enemy forces. Officials estimate that more than 6,000 North Korean soldiers were killed in the intense fighting, The Guardian reported.

Speaking at a ceremony attended by Russian officials and families of fallen soldiers, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un publicly praised troops who blew themselves up with grenades to avoid capture while fighting Ukrainian forces in Russia’s western Kursk region, effectively confirming the existence of this extreme battlefield doctrine.