North Korea has begun construction of the Museum of War Missions in Pyongyang, which will commemorate its military’s “heroic operations” abroad – notably in Russia’s Kursk region, where it helped Russian forces push back the Ukrainian army in 2024.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended the opening ceremony of the construction of the museum, dedicated to “fighters of the republic’s armed forces who displayed brilliant feats and offered their lives in military operations to liberate the Kursk region of the sister Russian Federation”, state news agency KCNA reported on Friday.

Pyongyang had reportedly secretly sent between 10,000 and 12,000 troops to Russia in 2024 to assist Kremlin forces, which were facing difficulties on the front line. The North Korean soldiers helped Russian forces retake about 1,000 square kilometers of territory in the Kursk region, which the Ukrainians had seized after a surprise invasion on August 6, 2024.

Ukrainian forces remained in the area for more than six months, until North Korean units assisted the Russians in their March 2025 counterattack, which led to the complete withdrawal of Ukrainian troops.

Cooperation between Russia and North Korea was strengthened with the signing of a “total partnership” treaty in the summer of 2024. Although both countries initially denied the involvement of North Korean soldiers in the fighting, they eventually admitted it after the successful operation in Kursk.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had estimated that about 4,000 North Korean soldiers were killed or wounded in the fighting, while U.S. officials estimated casualties at around 1,200.

Despite reports of a withdrawal of North Korean units from the front line, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Army reported on October 16 that the same forces had reappeared on the front, this time to support Russian operations in the Sumy region on the Kursk border.

“From the territory of the Kursk region, these units are conducting reconnaissance operations using drones, locating the positions of Ukrainian forces and contributing to the correction of fire against Ukrainian positions in Sumy,” the Ukrainian staff statement said.