Chaotic showdown over Guatemalan children exposes fault lines in Trump’s deportation push.


HARLINGEN, Texas — Laura Peña knew she had two hours to stop the children she represents from being deported home to Guatemala. She and other lawyers and advocates around the country were just starting to get word that Saturday night of Labour Day weekend that migrant children had just been woken up and were heading to the airport.

Hours of confusion ensued, including a frantic phone call to a judge at 2:36 a.m. It was remarkably similar to a chaotic March weekend when the Trump administration deported hundreds of Venezuelans to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador despite frantic attempts by attorneys and an intervention by a judge who came to court on a Saturday night in civilian dress.

This time, the attorneys managed to block the flights, at least for two weeks, but the episode has raised questions about how truthful the administration was in its initial accounts.

A Guatemalan government report obtained by The Associated Press from a U.S.-based human rights group says 50 of 115 families contacted by investigators said they wanted their children to stay in the U.S., undermining a key Trump administration claim that they wanted their children back in Guatemala. Another 59 families wouldn’t allow government teams in their homes, believing that refusing to co-operate would make it more likely their children could remain in the U.S., according to the report.

Many questions remain, including a full rundown of how old the children were and how many the administration planned to remove that night.

While some answers may emerge in court, a reconstruction of the rapid-fire events, based on interviews and government documents, illuminates the latest clash between the administration’s desire for mass deportations and longstanding legal protections for migrants.
Children told to pack a bag

Weeks of quiet planning led to at least 76 children boarding planes at Texas airports in Harlingen and El Paso.

Peña, who represents migrant children at the South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project, kissed her three-month-old goodbye and raced to a shelter. While driving, she got calls about children in other shelters being loaded onto buses.

Children were in the lobby with packed bags when she arrived, including one boy who was “almost catatonic,” terrified he would be murdered like a relative back home if he was returned, Peña said.

Three teens living with foster families in the Dallas area got a four-hour notice, said Jennifer Anzardo Valdes, director of children’s legal services at the International Rescue Committee, which represents them. “They all spoke about how they were woken up in the middle of the night and told to pack a bag,” she said.
A judge is jolted awake in the middle of the night

U.S. District Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan of Washington was jolted awake at 2:36 a.m. with an emergency request to stop the flights. The judge said in court Sunday that she left a voicemail for a Justice Department lawyer at 3:33 a.m. She ordered a halt to the deportations at 4:22 a.m.

“I have the government attempting to remove unaccompanied minors from the country in the wee hours of the morning on a holiday weekend, which is surprising,” said Sooknanan, who was appointed during the final weeks of Joe Biden’s presidency. “Absent action by the courts all of those children would have been returned to Guatemala, potentially to very dangerous situations.”

Drew Ensign, a Justice Department attorney, said it was possible that one plane had taken off but returned before the children were deported.

The Trump administration argued that it acted at Guatemala’s behest. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller accused the judge of “effectively kidnapping these migrant children and refusing to let them return home to their parents in their home country.”

The Guatemalan government report about the children’s families raises serious questions about the administration’s version of events.

One family said if their daughter was returned to Guatemala they would do everything to get her out because her life was threatened, according to the report.

Lucrecia Prera, Guatemala’s child advocate who prepared the report that raises questions about the Trump administration’s claims, told the AP that many families suspected her office was pushing for their children to be returned.

“We want to clarify that we are respectful of and unconnected to the process happening in the United States,” she said. “They are Guatemalan children and our obligation is to protect them.”

The children were led off the planes after hours on the tarmac and returned to their shelters.
A 2008 law requires children appear before an immigration judge

Children began crossing the border alone in large numbers in 2014, peaking at 152,060 in the 2022 fiscal year. July’s arrest tally translates to an annual clip of 5,712 arrests, reflecting how illegal crossings have dropped to their lowest levels in six decades.

Guatemalans accounted for 32 per cent of residents at government-run holding facilities last year, followed by Hondurans, Mexicans and El Salvadorans. A 2008 law requires children to appear before an immigration judge with an opportunity to pursue asylum, unless they are from Canada and Mexico. The vast majority are released from shelters to parents, legal guardians or immediate family while their cases wind through court.

It is unclear how many children who boarded at Texas airports in Harlingen and El Paso over Labour Day weekend — as well as any who were on the way — were allowed their day in court as required by the 2008 law. Lawyers for many of the Guatemalan children in the shelter system have said they still have active cases they want to pursue so they can stay in the U.S.

The Labour Day weekend drama can be traced to July, when Guatemala’s immigration chief said the government planned to bring back 341 children from shelters overseen by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department. They were nearing 18 and Guatemala didn’t want them transferred to immigration detention centres for adults.

But attorneys representing Guatemalan clients said the administration targeted kids young enough to be in elementary school on Sunday and either woke them up from shelters or placed them on a bus heading to the airport, countering the claim that only those close to aging out were targeted.

Valdes, of the International Rescue Committee, said some girls, all teenagers, were on a bus for hours, never actually making it to an airport and eventually being returned to a south Texas shelter.
Lawyers sensed something was afoot heading into the holiday weekend

“We started hearing from legal service providers about strange calls they’d received from some Guatemalan children’s parents or relatives in Guatemala who were told by Guatemalan officials that their children were going to be deported from the U.S.,” said Shaina Aber, executive director of the Acacia Center for Justice.

The children were still in immigration court proceedings, said Aber, whose group runs a network of legal services providers. Guatemalan consulates told lawyers for their children that they made the calls at the request of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, she said.

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, said Friday that as many as 700 Guatemalan children could be sent home. Lawyers who checked electronic court dockets found that future court dates had disappeared.

At the Guatemalan airport Sunday, families prepared for their children’s return. Leslie Lima, from San Marcos in western Guatemala, came to see her 17-year-old son Gabriel four months after he left home and was detained after crossing the border near El Paso. Since the imminent return of the minors was publicized last week, Lima had been worried about Gabriel.

“We will receive him here, but I hope that he can stay (in the U.S.) and accomplish his dreams,” she said.

Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo has said his administration told the U.S. that they’re willing to receive “all unaccompanied minors, who wanted to return to Guatemala voluntarily” and would welcome anyone who is ordered to leave the U.S.

The judge’s order blocking deportation of any Guatemalan children who don’t have final orders of removal expires in 14 days.

Children’s advocates and lawyers believe the chaos isn’t over.

___

Santana reported from #Washington and Perez reported from Guatemala City. Elliot Spagat contributed from San Diego.

Rebecca Santana, Valerie Gonzalez And Sonia Pérez D., The Associated Press

Elon Musk says he was invited to White House reception but will not attend.


Billionaire and onetime top White House advisor Elon Musk said he was invited to a tech leader summit at the White House’s newly renovated Rose Garden on Thursday, but will not be attending.

“I was invited, but unfortunately could not attend. A representative of mine will be there,” Musk said on Thursday, replying to an X user who asked why the xAI, SpaceX and Tesla leader was not invited.

The guest list for Thursday’s event includes Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, according to a White House official.

The fact that Musk was invited could be a sign that the relationship between Musk and the White House is thawing. Once referred to as “the first buddy,” and near constant presence at President Donald Trump’s side, Musk had a messy blowup with the president this summer after leaving his position at the Department of Government Efficiency. Musk even vowed to support primary challengers of Republicans who voted for Trump’s signature funding bill, and he claimed he would be starting a new political party, although there does not seem to have been any movement on that front.

The White House did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

In recent days, public comments from Trump and Vice President JD Vance seem to suggest Musk would be welcomed back into the fold.

Speaking to CNN contributor Scott Jennings on his podcast this week, Trump said Musk is “a man of common sense,” a “good man,” even though he “got off the reservation incorrectly.”

“He’s got 80% super genius and then 20% he’s got some problems. When he works out the 20%, he’ll be great,” Trump said. “I liked him… I like him now.”

In an interview last month with far-right outlet Gateway Pundit, Vance called Musk’s relationship with the Trump White House “complicated.” But he said he expects and hopes Musk will support the Republican Party by next November’s midterm elections.

“My argument to Elon is like, you’re not going to be on the left, even if you wanted to be — and he doesn’t — they’re not going to have your back. That ship has sailed. So I really think it’s a mistake for him to try to break from the president,” Vance said.

Musk has backed off attacking the administration on X and, in some cases, appears to be fully supporting the White House. Last month, he replied with a fire emoji and a laughing emoji to a post from White House communications adviser Margo Martin, who captioned a photo: “President @realDonaldTrump showing President Zelenskyy and President Macron his 4 More Years hat.”

The White House invitation could also be a lesson in history: Musk was famously not invited to a White House summit on electric vehicles in 2021 during President Joe Biden’s administration. (Part of the reason appeared to be because Tesla is a nonunion automaker.) Musk has been vocal about how much he continues to be upset over the snub.

On Thursday, he reposted a 2023 interview where he said Biden “added insult to injury” and hurt the company by claiming at the event that General Motors was “leading the electric car revolution” while Tesla made far more EV cars.

Musk reposted the 2023 video with the comment: “I try not to start fights, but I do finish them.”

CNN’s Samantha Waldenberg contributed to this report.

Report calls on #NATO to counter authoritarian manipulation, disinformation.


The report, released by the Montreal Institute for Global Security and Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Canada, warns that China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are working to expand their strategic influence and reshape global norms.

Their shared objectives include undermining U.S. leadership, discrediting western alliances — NATO in particular — and framing the West as hypocritical and neocolonial, the report says.

“Recognizing the scope of the threat is no longer enough,” says the report Wired for War: How Authoritarian States are Weaponizing AI Against the West. “The authoritarian playbook is clear, and so too must be the democratic response.”

Autocratic states are asserting power in the information domain by using a mix of overt state-controlled media and covert or unaffiliated channels to spread disinformation, the report’s authors say.

Emerging technologies — particularly artificial intelligence, deepfakes, bots and algorithmic amplification — are accelerating the scope and scale of foreign information manipulation and interference operations, they say.

“These operations are designed to appear organic and target diverse audiences across platforms such as X, Facebook, Telegram, YouTube, and TikTok,” the report says.

“Techniques include using videos, articles, memes, and AI-generated content, often masked through ‘information laundering’ to obscure their origins.”

While the United States’ current political commitment to NATO is fluctuating, other member states are stepping up by increasing their defence spending to 3.5 per cent of gross domestic product, the report notes.

“These new resources must not be directed solely at tanks, missiles, drones and troops. They must also be invested in the fight to secure our information environments, counter digital authoritarianism, and build digital resilience,” it says.

“NATO remains the most powerful collective instrument available to liberal democracies. It is time to wield that instrument with clarity and courage. Information warfare is warfare — our response must reflect that truth. Democratic governments must now act with urgency and strategic intent.”

NATO already has established an overarching strategy on emerging and disruptive technologies, with the aim of minimizing rogue interference and protecting against the adversarial use of AI, the report adds.

But it also cautions the alliance must not be left to wage this fight alone.

Western democracies should lead in confronting the information threat “with urgency and resolve,” the report says.

It underscores the central role the United States has long played in countering information warfare and advancing democratic and digital resilience globally.

“Through sustained funding, institutional leadership, and diplomatic co-ordination, it helped anchor a collective response to authoritarian influence operations,” the report says.

“Today, however, that leadership has largely receded. Key American programs and institutions dedicated to this fight have been defunded, dismantled, or deprioritized, leaving a dangerous vacuum.”

In this context, western democracies and their allies must step up, forge stronger partnerships and invest in shared strategic capacity to confront the growing threat, the authors argue.

“We have moved beyond a point where countering disinformation solely through content-level interventions like fact-checking is sufficient,” the report says.

“Instead, the priority must shift to addressing the underlying structures and systems that enable the creation and spread of disinformation.”

That work should include investing in news media, the authors say.

They point out that while authoritarian states like China, Russia and Iran are spending heavily on state-backed international media to influence audiences abroad, public broadcasters in democracies — such as Radio Free Europe, Voice of America and Radio Canada International — have endured significant funding cuts for years.

“The era of passive observation is over. If democracies are to withstand and ultimately overcome the growing axis of autocracy, they must meet this challenge with the seriousness, resources, and co-ordination it demands,” the report says.

“The stakes are no less than the integrity of our institutions, the resilience of our alliances, and the survival of the democratic idea itself.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 4, 2025.

Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press

Trump suggests National Guard could go into New Orleans, a blue city in a red state.

Trump has already said he plans to send the National Guard into Chicago and Baltimore following his administration deploying troops and federal agents to patrol the streets of Washington, D.C., last month.

“So we’re making a determination now,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office during a meeting with Polish President Karol Nawrocki. “Do we go to Chicago? Do we go to a place like New Orleans, where we have a great governor, Jeff Landry, who wants us to come in and straighten out a very nice section of this country that’s become quite, you know, quite tough, quite bad.”

Trump now frequently boasts about turning Washington into a “safe zone.” The White House reports more than 1,760 arrests citywide since the president first announced he was mobilizing federal forces on Aug. 7.

But Washington is a federal district subject to laws giving Trump power to take over the local police force for up to 30 days. The decision to use troops to attempt to quell crime in other Democratic-controlled cities around the country would represent an important escalation.

“So we’re going to be going to maybe Louisiana, and you have New Orleans, which has a crime problem. We’ll straighten that out in about two weeks,” Trump said. “It’ll take us two weeks, easier than D.C.”

Trump’s latest comments came a day after he declared “We’re going in” and suggested that the National Guard might soon be headed for Chicago, the nation’s third-largest city, and Baltimore. That’s despite state and local officials, as well as many residents, both places staunchly opposing the idea.

But New Orleans is a predominately Democratic-leaning city in a red state run by Landry, a Republican -- and reflection of Trump floating federal intervention along ideological lines.

“Crime is down in New Orleans,” City Councilmember Oliver Thomas, who is also a mayoral candidate, said via text message. “That would seem to be very political or a major overreaction!”

Councilmember Jean-Paul Morrell said it is “ridiculous to consider sending the National Guard into another American city that hasn’t asked for it.”

“Guardsmen are not trained law enforcement. They can’t solve crimes, they can’t interview witnesses and they aren’t trained to constitutionally police,” Morrell said in a statement. “NOPD is doing a great job with the existing resources they have. Marching troops into New Orleans is an unnecessary show of force in effort to create a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.”

Landry, though, posted on social media, “We will take President @realDonaldTrump’s help from New Orleans to Shreveport!” while House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, whose district includes the conservative suburbs outside of New Orleans, praised Trump’s efforts in Washington.

“The citizens of New Orleans, and the millions of tourists who come here, deserve that same level of security,” Scalise wrote in a social media post. “We should all be in favor of increased safety for our citizens and lower crime.”

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a statement that people “continue to die in New Orleans because ‘leaders’ refuse to accept the resources that are available to them.”

“If your gut reaction is to reject the President’s offer for assistance without condition, perhaps you’re the problem - not him,” Murill said.

The City of New Orleans struck a more conciliatory tone, staying in a statement, “our federal and state partnerships have played a significant role in ensuring public safety, particularly during special events” and that local officials “remain committed to sustaining this momentum.” New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell was indicted last month on federal fraud charges and is set to be arraigned in the coming weeks.

Trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly railed against Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker for not requesting that the National Guard be deployed.

“We could straighten out Chicago. All they have to do is ask us to go into Chicago. If we don’t have the support of some of these politicians, but I’ll tell you who is supporting us, the people of Chicago,” Trump said Wednesday.

Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have been adamant in saying Chicago doesn’t need or want military intervention. In Baltimore, Mayor Brandon Scott and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore have remained similarly opposed.

In Washington, Mayor Muriel Bowser has said Trump’s decision to take over her city’s police force and flood streets with hundreds of federal law enforcement agents and National Guard troops has succeeded in reducing violent crime -- but she’s also argued that similar results could have been achieved simply by having more city police officers in service.

She said Wednesday that Trump’s law enforcement powers in the city don’t need to be extended beyond 30 days, saying, “We don’t need a presidential emergency.”

Will Weissert, The Associated Press

Associated Press writer Jack Brook in New Orleans contributed to this report.

Australia agrees to pay Pacific nation of Nauru US$1.62 billion to house deportees.

Australia has agreed to pay the tiny Pacific nation of Nauru A$2.5 billion (US$1.62 billion) over three decades to host deported non-citizens, with accommodation for the first deportees already prepared, Australian officials said on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left government is expected to pass a law on Thursday making it easier to deport non-citizens to third countries, reviving criticism from human rights groups that it was “dumping” refugees in small island states and drawing comparisons with U.S. President Donald Trump‘s immigration policies.

Australia signed a deal last Friday with Nauru to resettle people who have been denied refugee visas because of criminal convictions. The United States is seeking Pacific Island nations willing to accept deported non-citizens.

The planned new law removes procedural fairness when Australia deports a non-citizen to a third country and is designed to limit court appeals, the government said. It is expected to pass in parliament after the conservative opposition Liberal Party said it would support the move.

Australia will pay Nauru an upfront A$400 million to establish an endowment fund for the resettlement scheme, plus A$70 million annually for the 30-year life of the agreement, Australian officials told a parliamentary committee.

The funds can be clawed back by Australia if Nauru decides not to accept as many deportees as expected, the home affairs officials added.

Nauru was already involved in Australia’s policies on immigration: two-thirds of its revenue last year, or A$200 million ($129.96 million), came from hosting an Australian-funded processing center for asylum seekers.

Under a decade-old policy to discourage people smuggling, Australia sends asylum seekers who arrive by boat to offshore detention centers to have refugee claims assessed, denying them Australian visas. The practice has been criticized by the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

Nauru, which has a population of 12,000 and a land area of just 21 square km (eight square miles), is reliant on foreign aid, and faces a 2025 deadline to repay Taiwan A$43 million ($27.94 million) after switching diplomatic ties to Beijing, according to budget documents.
New scheme covers different group

The new Nauru resettlement scheme will cover a different group, whose visas were canceled by Australia because they served prison sentences or were refused visas on character grounds, and cannot return to countries including Iran, Myanmar and Iraq because of the risk of persecution.

Australia’s High Court ruled in 2023 that indefinite immigration detention was unlawful, resulting in around 350 non-citizens being released into the community, with a third subject to electronic monitoring.

One of this group, a 65-year-old Iraqi man, lost a High Court appeal against deportation to Nauru on Wednesday.

Australia will apply to Nauru for visas for the non-citizens “on a rolling basis commencing fairly soon,” the official told a parliamentary committee.

When a visa is approved by Nauru, the individual will be detained in Australia to prepare for deportation, she added.

The president of the Law Council of Australia, Juliana Warner, said on Wednesday the deportation law was “troubling” because it could put those sent to Nauru at risk of not receiving necessary healthcare, and is being rushed through parliament without adequate public scrutiny.

Several independent lawmakers said they were concerned it could be applied more widely than the 350 released by the High Court decision, with up to 80,000 people in the community without a visa.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke declined to comment on the 80,000 figure, and has said the law change is needed to maintain the integrity of the migration system.

The move was “absolutely Trump-like,” said Jana Favero, the deputy chief executive of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.

Independent lawmaker Monique Ryan told parliament that Australia was “using a small island nation as a dumping ground.”

(Reporting by Kirsty Needham in Sydney. Editing by Michael Perry and Frances Kerry)

#Pakistani premier describes meeting with Putin as 'very warm and constructive'
Shehbaz Sharif underscored "Pakistan’s readiness to deepen its cooperation with Russia in trade, connectivity, energy, agriculture, AI, defence, culture & people-to-people exchanges".


Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif described his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in China as "very warm and constructive."

"Held a very warm and constructive meeting with H.E. President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation, on the sidelines of my ongoing visit to Beijing," he wrote on the X social network. "We fondly recalled our last meeting in Astana (2024) & expressed satisfaction at the positive momentum of our bilateral ties across multiple spheres of shared interest."

The prime minister of the Islamic Republic underscored "Pakistan’s readiness to deepen its cooperation with Russia in trade, connectivity, energy, agriculture, AI, defence, culture & people-to-people exchanges."

In his words, the sides also discussed regional and global issues, and agreed on the importance of enhanced Pakistan-Russia cooperation at multilateral fora, especially the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

Sharif also thanked the Russian leader for his invitation to visit Russia and take part in the SCO prime ministers’ meeting in November.

Rescuers desperately searched on Tuesday for survivors in the rubble of homes flattened by an earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan, killing more than 900 people.

#Israel starts calling up reservists as it pushes into initial stages of Gaza City offensive

#Serbian students march in latest anti-graft protest. Thousands of high-school students marched through Serbia’s capital on Monday, the latest in months of demonstrations denouncing graft that have piled pressure on President Aleksandar Vucic.

The rally -- conducted in silence -- passed off peacefully, unlike ones in mid-August that degenerated into violence from what protesters said was heavy-handed tactics by government loyalists and police.

The regular demonstrations started over a fatal train-station roof collapse 10 months ago.

The November 2024 tragedy, which killed 16 people in the northern city of Novi Sad, quickly became a symbol of entrenched corruption in the Balkan nation.

While they have led to the resignation of the prime minister and the collapse of his government, Vucic has remained defiantly in office, at the helm of a reshuffled administration.

He has so far brushed off demands for early elections, and alleges the demonstrations are part of a foreign plot.

“Ten months is an enormous period of time, and nothing has changed. Not a single thing. Not one person has been held accountable” for the rail-station collapse, 18-year-old Lazar, a final-year high school student from Belgrade, told AFP.

The protest he marched in featured no slogans but was marked by the symbolic silence in memory of the victims.

“We remember the tragedy, we demand accountability, we fight for a better country. We do not look away. Together until the end,” students wrote on Instagram.

Protesters also held commemorative marches in the cities of Kragujevac and Novi Sad.

Earlier, dozens of students had assembled outside Novi Sad train station, the site of the tragedy.

Police estimate that there have been approximately 23,000 gatherings of varying sizes nationwide since the protest movement began.

The largest of the demonstrations have drawn hundreds of thousands of people.

Authorities have rejected allegations of brutality, despite videos in mid-August showing officers beating unarmed protesters and accusations that activists were assaulted while in custody.

Since then, the gatherings in recent weeks weeks have been largely calm.

Vucic’s ruling party, in power since 2012, has responded by starting to stage its own rallies around the country.

Police said more than 100,000 people attended one such event on Sunday. AFP could not verify the figure.

North Korea releases propaganda video praising its soldiers who fought for #Russia.

Just days before Kim Jong Un is due to stand with Russia’s Vladimir Putin to witness a display of China’s military might, North Korea has released a propaganda film praising its troops’ efforts fighting for Russia in its war against Ukraine.

The 20-minute video, released by North Korean state media KCTV, showed heavily dramatized shots of soldiers on the snow-covered battlefield – handling weapons, holding meetings with Russian soldiers, and installing bombs on trees.

It also showed aerial footage purporting to show damage inflicted by North Korean soldiers, with clips of explosions and targeted strikes.

Other parts of the video emphasized the soldiers’ patriotism – with one shot appearing to show soldiers gazing at a framed portrait of Kim, and another showing a soldier pressing his cheek to the North Korean flag.

It’s unclear how much of the footage is authentic, or whether it has been staged or manipulated, as is common in North Korean propaganda. CNN cannot independently verify when and where the videos were filmed.

“They’re presenting their participation in the Ukrainian war as a major exploit, as another confirmation of (North Korea’s) military might and their loyalty to the party, state and the leader himself,” said Andrei Lankov, a professor of Korean Studies at Kookmin University in Seoul.

The video offers a rosy view of the situation on the ground in a theatre that has become notorious for human wave attacks and horrific attrition rates on the Russian side. Western officials estimated that a third of the 12,000 North Korea troops believed to be part of the initial deployment were either killed or wounded.

The program, initially shrouded in secrecy, was later confirmed by both Pyongyang and Moscow. In recent weeks, Kim finally acknowledged the loss of troops, holding two events in August to meet bereaved families.

Last Friday, he promised “a beautiful life” for the families of “martyrs” who perished fighting for Russia, state media reported. Earlier in August, he said his “heart aches,” with state media photos showing the leader embracing sobbing families and kneeling before the portraits of deceased soldiers.

The propaganda video on Sunday paid tribute to these soldiers too, beginning with a statement that troops had participated in operations to “liberate” the Russian region of Kursk in October 2024 after Ukraine’s surprise offensive. It also named some fallen soldiers and described how they had died.

For decades, North Korean propaganda has emphasized the significance of its military but “had very little real actual stuff to talk about,” said Lankov, pointing to its previous lack of real battlefield experience.

“Now, they’ve had a real war where, generally speaking, North Korean soldiers were fighting quite well,” he added. “It’s understandable that it’s likely to become a major topic of their domestic propaganda, domestic ideological education and indoctrination.”

North Korea has drawn closer to Russia since the war began, with experts warning that Moscow may be offering military and technological assistance to Pyongyang in exchange for its troops.
Visit to Beijing

Both Kim and Russian leader Vladimir Putin will be in Beijing on Wednesday for a massive military parade to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II – setting the stage for a striking show of unity between the two autocrat leaders and China’s Xi Jinping.

The trip will be Kim’s first trip to China since 2019. Kim, who has only embarked on 10 foreign trips since assuming power in 2011, last left his isolated country in 2023 to meet Putin at a remote spaceport in Russia’s far east.

Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, said North Korea could have released the video ahead of the Beijing visit to portray Kim as “an important leader with a strategic position in Northeast Asia that is on par with Putin and Xi Jinping at the Victory Day (parade).”

It would further the narrative that North Korea is “forming a solidarity front with powerful countries on the diplomatic stage,” Hong added.

On Sunday, Kim also examined missiles on a “newly inaugurated” production line and learned about the “overall condition of the state missile production capacity,” state media KCNA reported on Monday.

Images published by KCNA appeared to show Kim at an undisclosed location inspecting several dozen weapons in various stages of production and talking with uniformed officers.

According to the KCNA report, North Korea had “successfully fulfilled” its five-year plan to expand its missile production capacity.

“Various kinds of missiles were put into serial production,” the agency reported, adding that Kim had ratified three new long-term plans “related to missile production capacity.”

North Korea has ramped up its weapons program in the last few years, rapidly modernizing its armed forces, developing new weapons and testing intercontinental ballistic missiles that can reach almost anywhere in the United States.

Kim has also ramped up his rhetoric, vowing recently to build up the country’s nuclear program and threatening to use it to destroy South Korea if attacked.

Jessie Yeung, Billy Stockwell and Gawon Bae, #CNN