North Korean Memorial Points to About 2,300 Deaths in Russia's Ukraine War

Thousands of Names on Two Walls in Pyongyang

Two memorial walls in Pyongyang, each 30 meters long, offer the strongest indication yet of how many North Korean soldiers have died fighting alongside Russia. An analysis of satellite imagery and official photographs suggests that approximately 2,304 names are engraved on the walls, pointing to a death toll of roughly 2,300.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un unveiled the Memorial Museum of Combat Feats at Overseas Military Operations on April 26, 2026, in the capital's Hwasong district. Built over six months in a heavily forested area covering 52,000 square meters, the complex honors soldiers who died in operations to recapture Russia's Kursk region from Ukrainian forces.

The monument provides the first concrete evidence of the human cost of Kim's military alliance with Moscow. Its walls, graves and buildings also reveal how Pyongyang has chosen to commemorate soldiers sent on the country's largest foreign military deployment since the Korean War ended in 1953.

South Korea's National Intelligence Service estimated in September 2025 that about 2,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed and another 2,700 wounded. The number of names visible at the memorial is close to that earlier estimate of deaths. In February 2026, the agency put the combined number killed or wounded at roughly 6,000, without giving a separate total for either group.

The opening ceremony brought senior Russian officials to Pyongyang and was accompanied by plans for military cooperation extending from 2027 through 2031. As of May 8, 2026, the memorial presents both a public acknowledgment of heavy losses and a statement that the partnership responsible for the deployment will continue.

How the Memorial Count Was Calculated

Each of the two walls is divided into roughly 14 sections. Nine sections on each wall appear to carry names arranged in 16 columns, while photographs taken at closer range show eight names in each column.

Multiplying nine sections by 16 columns and eight names produces an estimate of 1,152 names per wall. Across both walls, the result is approximately 2,304. The calculation makes the monument itself a way to estimate deaths that North Korea has otherwise kept largely hidden.

Songhak Chung, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for Security Strategy, confirmed that assessment. He noted that the walls are packed with names written in extremely small characters, making individual inscriptions difficult to examine.

Image resolution limits the precision of the count. South Korea's Ministry of Unification has also cautioned that it is difficult to confirm whether every fatality has been inscribed. The number of names is therefore an estimate, and the completeness of the memorial remains uncertain.

Why North Korean Troops Went to Kursk

Ukrainian forces launched a surprise incursion into Russia's Kursk region in August 2024. After Ukrainian troops crossed into Russian territory, Moscow turned to Pyongyang for military assistance in its effort to regain control.

Between October 2024 and mid-2025, North Korea dispatched an estimated 11,000 to 15,000 troops to the western Kursk region. South Korean intelligence agencies tracked the movement closely and estimated that Pyongyang supplied conventional weapons alongside infantry units.

North Korean soldiers initially faced a difficult adjustment to modern warfare. Military assessments described troops with little combat experience and limited familiarity with the terrain, leaving them particularly exposed to Ukrainian drone strikes and artillery fire. Drones can locate troops and attack them from above, while artillery can strike positions from a distance.

Ukrainian military assessments indicated that the North Korean forces gained crucial battlefield experience over time. They became central to Russian efforts to overwhelm Ukrainian positions through mass infantry tactics, using large numbers of soldiers to press attacks.

The deployment and the public acknowledgment of its cost unfolded over several stages:

• August 2024: Ukrainian forces launched their surprise incursion into Russia's Kursk region.
• October 2024 to mid-2025: North Korea sent an estimated 11,000 to 15,000 troops to western Kursk.
• September 2025: South Korean intelligence estimated about 2,000 North Korean deaths and 2,700 wounded.
• February 2026: South Korean intelligence assessed that roughly 6,000 personnel had been killed or wounded.
• April 26, 2026: Kim Jong Un unveiled the memorial complex in Pyongyang.

Graves and Urns Show Different Forms of Remembrance

The cemetery contains approximately 280 marked graves, divided evenly between its western and eastern sides. That is far fewer than the roughly 2,300 names estimated to appear on the walls.

SI Analytics, a Korean research company, describes the complex as using a tiered system of commemoration. Some soldiers are honored with outdoor graves, while the majority of the fallen appear to be commemorated in a building at the center of the cemetery.

Kim Jin-mu, a former senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, said those buried in the graveyard likely include soldiers whose bodies were recovered, senior officers or individuals given special recognition for acts of self-sacrifice.

The central building is a columbarium with three stories. A columbarium stores funeral urns containing cremated remains. Songhak Chung explained that its walls have storage compartments arranged in a grid and that, even after allowing for offices and exhibition areas, the building could accommodate at least 1,000 sets of remains.

The layout suggests a hierarchy of honor. Outdoor burial appears to be reserved for those credited by state media with extraordinary valour, while other soldiers are remembered through urns inside the memorial building. The estimated capacity describes how much the building could hold; the account of the complex does not give a confirmed number of urns already placed there.

Deaths and Injuries Tell Different Parts of the Story

South Korea's intelligence assessments provide a broader picture of the losses. Its September 2025 estimate of about 2,000 killed and 2,700 wounded amounted to approximately 4,700 casualties in total. In military usage, casualties can include both deaths and injuries.

The National Intelligence Service raised that combined estimate to roughly 6,000 in February 2026, an increase of about 1,300 from the earlier total. It used an estimated deployed force of 11,000 personnel for that assessment, placing the number killed or wounded at more than half of that figure.

The February assessment did not divide the 6,000 between deaths and injuries. The memorial walls, by contrast, commemorate the dead. Both figures help describe the cost of the deployment, but they measure different groups of soldiers.

Kim Jin-mu argued that Pyongyang likely inscribed all the names of fallen soldiers to maintain support among bereaved families. In his view, the memorial may represent a complete record of deaths, while higher intelligence figures may include wounded soldiers or missing personnel whose deaths have not been confirmed.

Other explanations concern who receives public recognition. The possibility that some soldiers were omitted because their remains were never recovered, or because authorities wanted to avoid domestic unrest, adds to the difficulty of reconstructing the full death toll.

Social Status May Shape Who Is Remembered

Naoko Aoki, a political scientist at the RAND think tank, suggested that North Korea's songbun system may influence which soldiers receive public memorialization. Songbun classifies people according to their families' loyalty to the regime and affects access to food, education and employment.

Aoki said the soldiers honored with graves and wall inscriptions likely came from social groups the authorities considered reliable. She explained her assessment in these words:

North Korea has a social classification system called songbun, which categorizes people into groups based on their forbears' loyalty to the regime. This determines one's access to everything from food, education, and work. I think we can assume that those who are memorialized are from a class that the regime considers reliable.

Her interpretation places the memorial within North Korea's domestic political system. A public tribute can comfort families and celebrate military service while also reflecting the state's judgments about loyalty and status.

Moscow and Pyongyang Celebrate an Alliance Written in Blood

Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of Russia's State Duma, and Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov attended the opening ceremony. Their presence underscored the importance Moscow attaches to North Korea's military support.

Volodin publicly thanked Kim for sending troops to liberate Kursk. He described Korean soldiers as having fought shoulder to shoulder with Russian forces to liberate Russian soil from Ukrainian Nazis, using the Russian government's portrayal of its opponent.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent Kim a letter describing the memorial as a distinct symbol of friendship and unity between the peoples of the two countries. Kim, speaking at the ceremony, framed the soldiers' sacrifice as the foundation of a closer relationship with Russia:

A new history of friendship between Korea and Russia written in blood.

Kim hailed the fallen troops as symbols of Korean heroism. He said they had thwarted the hegemonic ambitions and military adventurism of the United States and the West, presenting the deployment as resistance to Western efforts to dominate other countries.

The lavish commemoration serves several purposes for Pyongyang. It honors the dead, offers a public account of their sacrifice and ties that sacrifice to the government's diplomatic partnership with Moscow.

What North Korea May Receive in Return

North Korea's support for Russia has included troops and conventional weapons. Analysts believe Pyongyang received substantial compensation, including food shipments, hard currency and technical assistance with satellite and missile programs.

Hard currency means money that can be used and accepted in international transactions. For North Korea, such funds and food supplies provide a vital economic lifeline while the country faces the most stringent international sanctions in history. The arrangement has been described as an exchange of soldiers for sustenance.

Russia and North Korea formalized their relationship in 2024, when Putin and Kim signed the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty. The treaty contains a mutual defense provision, committing the countries to support each other under the conditions set out in their agreement.

Officials in Seoul, Washington and Tokyo fear that Russia may transfer advanced military technology to North Korea. Their concern is that such assistance could accelerate Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs, giving the military relationship consequences far beyond the fighting in Kursk.

The reported economic rewards and possible technical support help explain why Pyongyang would sustain the deployment despite its losses. They also connect the war in Europe to security concerns in Asia.

Military Cooperation Is Set to Extend Beyond the War

Belousov announced during the April ceremonies that Russia and North Korea planned to sign a military cooperation agreement covering 2027 through 2031. The proposed five years of cooperation point to a relationship extending beyond the immediate Ukraine conflict.

Lim Eul-chul, a professor at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University, interpreted the plan as preparation for a period after the war. He suggested that the relationship was developing into an institutional alliance, meaning one supported by continuing agreements and arrangements rather than a single deployment.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said approximately 11,000 North Korean soldiers remained in Russia as of early 2026. That estimate indicates that a substantial North Korean presence continued despite the deaths and injuries already recorded.

Only two North Korean soldiers have been captured alive by Ukrainian forces. Both reportedly expressed a desire to defect to South Korea. North Korean military doctrine allegedly instructs troops to kill themselves rather than face capture, reflecting the regime's intense control over soldiers even on foreign battlefields.

Pyongyang's memorial gives those losses a permanent place in the capital. Moscow's proposed cooperation agreement gives the alliance a timetable stretching to 2031. Together, the ceremony and the military plans show a government publicly honoring the cost of its commitment while preparing to maintain it.

Key Points

• Kim Jong Un opened the memorial in Pyongyang's Hwasong district on April 26, 2026.
• Analysis of two walls suggests approximately 2,304 inscribed names, pointing to roughly 2,300 North Korean deaths.
• North Korea sent an estimated 11,000 to 15,000 troops to western Kursk between October 2024 and mid-2025.
• The complex contains approximately 280 marked graves and a columbarium capable of holding at least 1,000 sets of remains.
• South Korean intelligence estimated roughly 6,000 killed or wounded in February 2026, without separating deaths from injuries.
• Analysts believe North Korea received food, hard currency and assistance with satellite and missile programs in exchange for its support.
• Russia announced plans for a military cooperation agreement covering 2027 through 2031.
• Approximately 11,000 North Korean soldiers remained in Russia in early 2026, according to Volodymyr Zelenskyy.