North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has praised his troops fighting abroad as forging an "invincible alliance" with Russia in a new year's message, state media said Thursday.
Pyongyang has sent thousands of troops to support Russia's nearly four-year invasion of Ukraine, according to South Korean and Western intelligence agencies.
North Korean soldiers were deployed in Russia's western Kursk region to drive back a shock incursion by Ukrainian forces in 2024. Pyongyang has also said that North Korean combat engineers have been deployed to clear mines in the region.
At least 600 have died and thousands more have sustained injuries, according to South Korean estimates that could not be independently verified.
In addition to sending troops to fight for Russia, Pyongyang has sent artillery shells, missiles and long-range rocket systems.
Analysts say North Korea is receiving financial aid, military technology and food and energy supplies from Russia in return.
Read moreFrom isolation to battlefield: North Korean troops could face reality check in Ukraine
Kim praised his men fighting in an "alien land", congratulating their "heroic" defence of the nation's honour and instructing them to "be brave", the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Thursday.
"As the whole country is enveloped in a festive atmosphere of greeting the new year, I all the more miss you, who are fighting bravely on the battlefields in the alien land even at this moment," he said, according to KCNA.
"Behind you are Pyongyang and Moscow," Kim said.
The North Korean leader praised soldiers for strengthening the "invincible alliance" with Russia, calling on them to fight "for the fraternal Russian people".
And Kim hinted that more overseas action would take place this year, highlighting "remarkable feats you will perform on the overseas battlefields".
Kim marked the new year with a lavish celebration performance and speech at Pyongyang's May Day stadium, state media said.
Images shared by KCNA showed Kim accompanied by his wife Ri Sol Ju and his daughter Ju Ae, believed to be his likely successor.
Nationalist appeals
Analysts say that North Korea's deepening alliance with Russia has offered an economic lifeline to Kim's regime and allowed him to rebuff US and South Korean overtures for dialogue.
"Deployments to Russia, as well as overseas military operations or cooperation more broadly, are no longer exceptional but have become embedded as part of official defence policy," Lim Eul-chul, a professor at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University, said.
And Thursday's state media coverage shows that Kim can also "frame the economic and military gains" from the troop deployments in nationalist appeals to his domestic audience, he added.
On-the-ground accounts, however, paint a stark picture for North Korean troops embedded in Europe's bloodiest war in decades.
Read moreNorth Korean POWs in Ukraine seeking 'new life' in South
South Korea's intelligence service, as well as accounts by two wounded North Korean soldiers captured by Ukraine, have alleged that Pyongyang's soldiers have been ordered to kill themselves rather than be taken prisoner.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)