North Korea’s Kim Jong Un shown with coffins of his soldiers killed in Russia

SEOUL - In the year since North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and Russia’s Vladimir Putin signed a landmark defense pact, their relationship has become demonstrably stronger, not least through Kim’s decision to dispatch at least 12,000 troops to fight in Putin’s war against Ukraine.

On Monday, North Korea’s state media broadcast footage of the leader leaning over the coffins of soldiers who died in that fight, marking the first time Kim had openly displayed his regime’s role in aiding Russia’s war.

Kim’s public tribute highlights how much North Korea has given - and may be a recognition of how much the country has received in return, including potentially cash, oil and technology for his weapons programs.

It is also part of an effort to ensure the pact, which has made North Korea useful to a world power for the first time in decades, endures, analysts say.

“Once the decision was made [to send troops to help Russia], he has been very consistent” in his messaging, said Fyodor Tertitskiy, an expert on North Korea’s history and military at Seoul’s Kookmin University. “They are trying to show all possible optics in hopes that Russia won’t abandon them once the war is over.”

Kim has become one of Putin’s staunchest supporters since the start of the war in Ukraine more than three years ago, which left the Russian leader clamoring for troops and munitions, and the North Korean in the unusual position of having assets that someone else wanted.

Kim dispatched some 12,000 troops to fight in Russia’s western region of Kursk last year, and thousands of them died, according to U.S., Ukrainian and South Korean officials. This helped Moscow retake the region, and Russia has thanked North Korea for helping “in the operation to liberate” Kursk.

North Koreans were highly motivated on the battlefield and tended to fight to the death or kill themselves with grenades rather than be captured, according to Ukrainian soldiers.

Kim may be preparing to send thousands more within the next two months, the South Korean intelligence agency said last week.

The decision to send North Korean soldiers to fight for Moscow was an unusual move for a country perennially preparing for invasion from its enemies. North Korea is also believed to have sent large amounts of munitions, including artillery shells, to Russia.

North Korea held a commemoration in Pyongyang on Sunday, the anniversary of Putin’s summit with Kim in North Korea’s capital, where the two leaders signed a landmark strategic and military treaty.

As Russians and North Koreans performed onstage to orchestral music, a giant screen displayed images and videos relating to North Korea’s dispatch of troops to Russia, and Kim was pictured with about a half-dozen coffins with the North Korean flag draped over them.

A somber Kim hunched over in front of one coffin and placed both hands on it, appearing to pay tribute to the repatriated remains of the soldiers who were sent to Russia, according to footage aired on Korean Central Television.

The state media footage also showed Russian officials at the event crying and wiping their eyes.

The performances celebrated the “militant ties of friendship and the genuine internationalist obligation between the peoples and armies of the two countries that were forged at the cost of blood,” state media outlet Korean Central News Agency said.

The report, using the abbreviation for North Korea’s official name, claimed the “annals of the DPRK-Russia friendship will last forever along with the history of victory.”

A Russian delegation led by Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova and the staff of the Russian Embassy in Pyongyang attended, along with senior party and government officials, KCNA reported.

South Korea’s intelligence agency said Kim appears to have sent additional troops to Russia earlier this year. South Korean lawmakers briefed by the spy agency said those additional troops may total about 4,000 soldiers.

Top Russian security official Sergei Shoigu made two visits to Pyongyang last month, which were made on “special instructions” from Putin, according to Russian state-run news agencies. Russian media reported after Shoigu’s trips that Pyongyang plans to send about 5,000 military construction workers and 1,000 land-mine removal workers to Kursk.

Those 6,000 workers could leave as early as this month, the spy agency told lawmakers last week. North Korea has already begun recruiting soldiers to be sent to Russia, the lawmakers said, citing the intelligence service.

Kim has hailed the “excellent soldiers” for their “heroic feats” in the Kursk region, saying in April that the men “who fought for justice are all heroes and representatives of the honor of the motherland.” Kim also vowed to establish a monument in Pyongyang in their honor.