Watch: Kim Jong-un weeps over soldiers killed fighting for Putin
The North Korean dictator had tears in his eyes as he watched footage of the battlefield in an operatic show marking the one-year anniversary of Pyongyang's defence pact with Moscow.
On a giant screen behind an orchestra, images were shown of Kim kneeling and placing his hands on a coffin draped in the North Korean flag. He gulped and breathed rapidly in the footage broadcast on state media.
In separate clips, the 41-year-old was seen approving plans for North Korean military operations in Russia's Kursk region, where they deployed late last year to help Moscow drive out a Ukrainian bridgehead.
The ceremony on Sunday came days after Kim inaugurated a new seaside resort, watching on as a citizen whizzed off the end of a curved water slide.
Then he was accompanied on the weekend by his daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who stood and applauded as a singer performed on stage in front of images of North Korean soldiers and tanks bearing the 'Z' symbol.
According to the British Ministry of Defence, around 6,000 North Koreans have been killed or wounded while fighting in the Kursk region.
Analysts said Kim's public acknowledgement of the cost of the operation may have been intended to soothe public discontent, although only six coffins were shown in the ceremony.
North Korea 's supreme leader was shown approving plans for Kursk on three dates: October 22, December 12 and December 22 last year.
Local media reports said he had issued 'offensive operations orders to special operations units', casting him rather than Moscow as directly responsible for their instructions.
'An open question'
Vladimir Putin visited Kursk after Russia's army pushed the Ukrainian army out of its foothold in the country, which once spanned roughly 1000 square kilometres.
North Korean soldiers initially suffered huge casualties as they charged at the Ukrainian lines across open fields. But they proved themselves on the battlefield over time, said Rob Lee, a senior research fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
'It is an open question, if North Korea was not taking part, what the position of Kursk would be right now,' he said on the Russia Contingency podcast in March. 'Without them, [the Ukrainians] could probably have held the pocket longer.'
Ukrainian officials Mr Lee spoke to 'had a pretty high opinion of the North Korean soldiers. They thought they're very physically fit, very tough, pretty competent '.
'Tactically, they were employed, I think, poorly by the Russians. But at the squad level, they have pretty good tactics, good marksmanship, and they don't surrender.'
South Korea's National Intelligence said last Thursday that Pyongyang may deploy an additional 6,000 troops to support Moscow. Sergei Shoigu, a close ally of Putin, said that 5,000 construction personnel and 1,000 mine removal engineers would be dispatched this summer.
Last year, Kim signed a mutual defence pact with Moscow, agreeing to send missiles, ammunition and troops to the battlefield. In return, South Korea's intelligence agency says that Pyongyang is likely receiving technical advice on satellite launches and missile guidance systems.
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