BBC: 2,300 North Korean Soldiers Died Fighting for Russia in Ukraine War

About 2,300 North Korean soldiers have died fighting for Russia against Ukraine, a BBC investigation found from satellite images and official photos of a new memorial in Pyongyang.

South Korea estimates at least 11,000 North Koreans were sent to Russia to help recapture parts of western Kursk after Ukraine launched a surprise incursion there in August 2024.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has publicly paid tribute to soldiers who died in the war. Pyongyang received food, money and technical help from Moscow in return for providing soldiers.

The secretive regime has never disclosed the death toll from the Kursk operation, which Russia says it has fully reclaimed. A new memorial offers clues for the first time.

In October 2025, Kim Jong Un ordered construction of a museum in Pyongyang's Hwasong district to honor troops killed in the Russia-Ukraine war.

Work started that month in a heavily forested area, based on a BBC analysis of satellite images from Planet Labs, a US imaging company. A rudimentary shell of the 52 sq km complex appeared in December. By March, most exterior construction was done. Landscaping and surrounding facilities finished last month.

Unveiled on April 26, the Memorial Museum of Combat Feats at Overseas Military Operations conveys the "unrivalled bravery" of North Korean soldiers during their deployment to "liberate [the] Kursk region," state news agency KCNA said.

The memorial includes two 30m (98ft) long walls engraved with names, a building and a cemetery.

A BBC analysis of KCNA images shows each wall divided into about 14 sections marked by grey stone lines at the top. Names fill nine sections, with 16 columns each. Close-up photos of the east wall show eight names per column.

That equals 1,152 names per wall, or 2,304 total.

Songhak Chung, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for Security Strategy, agrees. "The memorial walls are packed with the names of deceased soldiers written in extremely small characters. Considering the surface area and text density, the number of people recorded there is likely to reach several thousand," he said.

The exact figure is unclear without higher-resolution images, but the BBC estimate matches South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS). In September 2025, the NIS said about 2,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed and 2,700 wounded.

By February this year, the NIS updated that about 6,000 of the estimated 11,000 deployed had been killed or wounded, without a breakdown. Neither Pyongyang nor Moscow has given official figures.

The memorial uses a "tiered system of commemoration," Korean research company SI Analytics said. Soldiers with "extraordinary valour" get outdoor graves and tombstones; others have urns in a columbarium.

Kim Jin-mu, a former senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, said those buried may include recovered bodies, senior officers or individuals given special recognition, including self-sacrifice cases.

Satellite images from early April show about 140 graves on the west side of the graveyard and 138 on the east, per SI Analytics.

A grey building in the graveyard's middle likely is a columbarium for funeral urns, Chung said. "The entire wall appears to be filled with grid-patterned storage compartments for remains. The [columbarium] is a three-storey building, and even excluding offices and exhibition areas, the indoor repository alone would be able to house at least 1,000 sets of remains," he said.

South Korea's Ministry of Unification said it is "difficult to confirm" if all killed soldiers are on the walls. Researcher Kim believes it is highly likely all Kursk deaths are inscribed.

"The memorial is intended to reward those who have sacrificed for the state and maintain public support," he said. "Omitting names could risk discontent among bereaved families and undermine its purpose."

The memorial shows Pyongyang's willingness to continue military cooperation with Russia regardless of the war's course.