A new residential district called Saeppyol Street has appeared in Pyongyang, North Korea's capital. The inauguration ceremony was held on February 16, with Kim Jong-un in attendance. According to the Rodong Sinmun, he delivered the following remarks:
"The name Saeppyol Street is already enshrined in everyone's hearts as a byword for the lives of those combat veterans who were so brave until their final moments, bearing the weight of a lifetime's worth of meaning in answer to the call of their homeland on distant battlefields."
Saeppyol Street is an apartment complex built for the families of soldiers killed in Russia.
The Kim Jong-un regime began deploying troops to Russia — which continues its invasion of Ukraine — around October 2024. The South Korean government estimates that more than 15,000 troops have been dispatched so far, with approximately 2,000 killed. The North Korean government has made no official announcement regarding the scale of the deployment or casualty figures.
◆ Sweeping Propaganda Campaign: "Let Us Become Heroes"
Since the summer of 2025, the Kim Jong-un regime has sustained a large-scale propaganda campaign glorifying combat soldiers — including the fallen — as heroes. Documentary films have been produced and screened repeatedly in workplaces and schools, while returned veterans are being sent to military units and schools to deliver lectures describing how they "fought bravely, risking their lives for the homeland and for Marshal Kim Jong-un."
A reporting partner living in the northern region relayed information in March after meeting with a woman who had attended a lecture event held in Kilju County, North Hamgyong Province. The woman has a child enrolled in a senior middle school (the equivalent of high school).
"Apparently the students at the event were in tears as they listened. Many of the parents present were also crying. As the woman was leaving the venue, she overheard a student say, 'If I sacrifice myself, will my parents be able to go to Pyongyang?' At the same time, she said there were parents among those attending who were saying things like, 'I don't want to make my son a hero. No matter what they offer, I don't want to send him to war. What's the use of becoming a hero after you're dead?'"
◆ North Korean Soldiers Dying in Misery
These young men were sent not to defend their own country, but to support Putin's war of aggression against Ukraine. Since December 2024, Ukrainian military authorities have released numerous videos and photographs showing North Korean soldiers being pursued by drones on the battlefields of Kursk Oblast, as well as images of the dead. Needless to say, the Kim Jong-un regime has told the North Korean public nothing of the misery in which these soldiers have died.
Kim Yeong-mi, a South Korean journalist specializing in conflict zones, succeeded in conducting in-person interviews with two soldiers taken prisoner by Ukrainian forces — the result of nearly six months of negotiations with Ukrainian military authorities. The interviews were broadcast on MBC in January and attracted significant attention in South Korea.
According to Ukrainian authorities, the prisoners were born in 1999 and 2005. The two soldiers said:
"We didn't know why we were being deployed or what we were supposed to be doing."
"Gunfire and artillery — it never stopped for a single moment. Explosions everywhere, bodies lying around. Someone standing right in front of you is dead the next second. I'd never seen anything like it."
"They were taking direct hits to the head and dying on the spot, without a word."
