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SEOUL, May 3 (Reuters) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met delegates to the ruling party’s youth league congress in \u200cPyongyang, state media KCNA said on Sunday, as the government \u200cagain cast young people as central to both domestic mobilisation and its military role \u200bin Russia’s war against Ukraine.<\/p>\n
The Eleventh Congress of the Socialist Patriotic Youth League, a once-in-five-years political gathering aimed at mobilising citizens aged roughly 14 to 30, concluded last week with mass rallies, torchlight parades and a \u200cgala in the capital.<\/p>\n
Kim \u2060on Saturday told delegates that youth was the “vanguard” in advancing state goals, calling the league a key force \u2060for carrying out party decisions. He urged tighter organisation and ideological discipline and posed for a group photograph with participants, KCNA said.<\/p>\n
In a letter \u200bpublished on \u200bFriday, the ruling Workers’ Party explicitly \u200blinked youth loyalty to Pyongyang’s \u200cinvolvement in the Ukraine war, telling the congress that young soldiers sent on overseas operations had “become bombs and flames” in defending the country’s honour.<\/p>\n
North Korea sent an estimated 14,000 troops to fight alongside Russian forces in the Kursk region, according to South Korean, Ukrainian and Western \u200cofficials, who say more than 6,000 \u200bNorth Korean soldiers were killed.<\/p>\n
Kim last month \u200bunveiled a new memorial in \u200bPyongyang to honour soldiers killed during those deployments.<\/p>\n
The emphasis \u200con youth control comes amid \u200bintensified repression of foreign \u200bcultural influence, with exposure to South Korean music, films and slang treated as serious political offences, as Kim casts youth policy \u200bas a pillar \u200cof social stability.<\/p>\n
He has also increasingly appeared in public with \u200bhis young daughter, believed to be named Ju Ae, at \u200bmajor state events.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Kyu-seok Shim)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n