SEOUL, May 3 (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met delegates to the ruling party's youth league congress in ‌Pyongyang, state media KCNA said on Sunday, as the government ‌again cast young people as central to both domestic mobilisation and its military role ​in Russia's war against Ukraine.

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 ‌gala in the capital.

Kim ⁠on Saturday told delegates that youth was the "vanguard" in advancing state goals, calling the league a key force ⁠for carrying out party decisions. He urged tighter organisation and ideological discipline and posed for a group photograph with participants, KCNA said.

In a letter ​published on ​Friday, the ruling Workers' Party explicitly ​linked youth loyalty to Pyongyang's ‌involvement 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.

North Korea sent an estimated 14,000 troops to fight alongside Russian forces in the Kursk region, according to South Korean, Ukrainian and Western ‌officials, who say more than 6,000 ​North Korean soldiers were killed.

Kim last month ​unveiled a new memorial in ​Pyongyang to honour soldiers killed during those deployments.

The emphasis ‌on youth control comes amid ​intensified repression of foreign ​cultural influence, with exposure to South Korean music, films and slang treated as serious political offences, as Kim casts youth policy ​as a pillar ‌of social stability.

He has also increasingly appeared in public with ​his young daughter, believed to be named Ju Ae, at ​major state events.

(Reporting by Kyu-seok Shim)