North Korea and Russia appear to have begun discussing the deployment of North Korean troops to the war in Ukraine about a year before they signed the Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, the Sankei Shimbun reported today (September 12).

Sankei cited a North Korean source who recently visited the Overseas Military Operations Combat Feats Memorial Hall, which North Korea built in Pyongyang to commemorate the deployment activities.

The source stated that exhibition materials at the memorial record that a Russian military delegation visiting Pyongyang in July 2023 met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to request troop deployment, which served as the catalyst for negotiations.

This means that negotiations between the two sides began roughly a year before North Korea and Russia signed the Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in June 2024 and sent troops to areas such as Kursk in southwestern Russia.

Sankei reported that the number of North Korean troops killed in the deployment is recorded as 2,288 in the memorial hall.

The source who visited the site revealed that a cemetery adjacent to the memorial features gravestones for 300 fallen soldiers who were promoted as "heroes," while the second and third floors of the memorial house the urns of the remaining victims.

The gravestones and urns list the names, dates of birth, and causes of death of the deceased soldiers, and the majority appeared to be young soldiers in their late teens to early twenties, the source said.

Documents in which soldiers swore not to be captured as prisoners by Ukraine are also reportedly exhibited at the memorial.

The source stated, "It is estimated that more than half of the casualties committed suicide explosions, and there were many victims from drone attacks."

Kim, along with Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the Russian State Duma, and Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, attended the completion ceremony in April of the memorial hall built by North Korea in Pyongyang to commemorate the deployment activities.

(Photo: Korean Central News Agency, Yonhap News)