Reports indicate that North Korea is constructing a 2,500-unit housing complex in the Saebyul District of Pyongyang’s Hwasong area for families of troops deployed to Russia. On Tuesday, concerns emerged that the actual North Korean military casualties could be several times higher than officially reported.
Images released by Korean Central Television on January 11 show Kim Jong Un inspecting the Hwasong district. The Saebyul area, part of the fourth phase of development, features thousands of identical high-rise apartments in a large-scale residential complex. This area is being built alongside a memorial for North Korean soldiers who died in the Ukraine conflict.
In late August last year, Kim promised to create a new neighborhood (Saebyul District) for the families of fallen soldiers during a meeting in Pyongyang. Since then, construction of both the district and the memorial has progressed simultaneously under Kim’s close supervision.
Assuming one housing unit per fallen soldier’s family, the casualty count could be around 2,500. This figure may be inflated to account for troops still deployed in the Kursk region of Ukraine.
This number significantly exceeds the size of the memorial cemetery recently revealed by North Korean media, which showed only about 400 graves near the Saebyul District memorial.
The 2,500 figure aligns closely with U.S. intelligence estimates. The National Intelligence Service believes that out of approximately 15,000 North Korean troops sent to Russia, around 2,000 have died. North Korea may be selectively honoring certain casualties or deliberately underreporting deaths to avoid international backlash.
The Saebyul District, part of the Hwasong area, represents Kim’s largest urban development project in Pyongyang. It aims to provide modern housing for key party and military officials, as well as regime loyalists. Allocating housing for families of fallen soldiers in this prestigious area likely serves to elevate the Russian deployment to a sacred war and to cultivate these families as a loyal base of support.