Kim meets families of North Korea soldiers killed fighting in Ukraine

North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un met with bereaved families of soldiers who died in Ukraine.

Kim Jong Un has met the families of soldiers killed fighting for Russia against Ukraine, expressing his "deep condolences", North Korean state media says.

In a special ceremony held on Friday, the North Korean leader was seen comforting bereaved families and presenting them portraits of their dead loved ones wrapped in the east Asian nation's flag.

South Korea believes the North has sent some 15,000 troops to aid Russia in its invasion, along with missiles and long-range weapons. In return, it is believed North Korea received food, money and technical help.

North Korea only acknowledged its role in the foreign conflict in April, admitting that some of its soldiers had been killed.

Western officials told the BBC in January that they believed at least 1,000 of the troops sent from North Korea had been killed in three months, with several thousand more wounded - but more recent estimates have put death toll closer to 600.

Friday's ceremony was the second of its kind in a week. During the event, Kim said he was filled with "sorrow" at failing to bring the soldiers back alive, pledging to build a monument in their honour and to look after their children.

"I thought a lot about other martyrs' families who were not present [at the previous ceremony]... So, I had this meeting arranged as I wanted to meet and console the bereaved families of all the heroes and relieve them of their sorrow and anguish even a little," state news agency KCNA reported Kim as saying.

Kim is due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in China next week, when he travels to attend a military parade marking Japan's surrender at the end of World War Two.

It will be their third meeting in two years, at a time when Moscow and Pyongyang are deepening their co-operation.

Last October, Kim sent Putin a birthday messages, describing him as his closest comrade.

That same month, Putin introduced a bill to ratify a military pact he had made with Kim, which pledged that Russia and North Korea would help each other in the event of "aggression" against either country.

North Korea may have some 1.28 million active soldiers, but until the Ukraine deployment its army had no recent experience of combat operations overseas.