Over 100 propaganda posters depicting North Korean troops deployed to assist Russia in Ukraine were unveiled at an exhibition in Moscow.
Russian media outlets, including RIA Novosti, as well as the North Korea-focused NK News, reported that the Art Exhibition of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea: Land of Great People opened on Monday in Moscow. The exhibition is scheduled to run until October 10.
The opening ceremony was attended by North Korean Culture Minister Seung Jeong-gyu, Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu, and Russian Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova.
Among the 123 North Korean artworks on display—including paintings, prints, ceramics, mosaics, and embroidery—the most striking pieces were propaganda posters portraying North Korean soldiers engaged in combat in Ukraine. These images depicted troops fighting and firing weapons amid the chaos on the battlefield in the Kursk region.
Some of the larger paintings featuring the deployed North Korean forces reportedly measured up to 5 meters in width, according to NK News.
A notable piece titled, In the Same Trench, showed Russian and North Korean soldiers celebrating victory against a backdrop of their national flags.
On Monday, Korean Central Television aired a report highlighting the Mansudae Art Studio, North Korea’s primary producer of propaganda art. The footage included scenes of North Korean troops allegedly operating on the Kursk battlefield.
Founded in 1959, the Mansudae Art Studio is North Korea’s largest art production facility. South Korea’s Ministry of Unification describes it as an organization that creates works glorifying Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il while generating foreign currency. The international community views it as a funding source for the North Korean regime, which led to its inclusion on the United Nations (UN) Security Council’s sanctions list in 2017.
This exhibition comes as North Korea and Russia seek to expand their relationship beyond military cooperation in the Ukraine conflict, exploring further avenues in trade and cultural exchange.
In June, Minister Lyubimova visited Pyongyang to mark the first anniversary of the new North Korea-Russia treaty. Talks held at the Mansudae Assembly Hall focused on enhancing cultural ties, culminating in a Cultural Cooperation Plan for 2025-2027 between the two nations’ cultural ministries.
During the exhibition’s opening, Ministers Seung and Lyubimova held additional discussions and agreed to broaden bilateral cultural cooperation. North Korea has reportedly extended invitations to Russian performers for the 80th anniversary celebrations of the Workers’ Party founding on October 10 and for next April’s Spring Friendship Art Festival.