North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin have pledged to further strengthen their ties and cooperation in the war against Ukraine, according to state media reports from both countries on Wednesday.
The two leaders spoke by phone on Tuesday, days before Putin’s planned meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in Alaska.
During the call, Putin praised the “bravery, heroism and self-sacrificing spirit” of North Korean troops fighting alongside Russian forces to repel a Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk border region, North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
Russia’s TASS news agency, citing the Kremlin, reported that Putin briefed Kim on his upcoming talks with Trump, scheduled for Friday in Alaska. KCNA’s account of the conversation did not mention the Trump meeting.
Kim expressed “full support” for all future measures by Russia’s leadership and discussed expanding cooperation “in all fields” under a strategic partnership agreement signed during their summit last year, KCNA said.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Kim has prioritized strengthening relations with Moscow to break out of diplomatic isolation and align with countries challenging Washington. His government has rejected U.S. and South Korean calls to resume stalled talks on denuclearization, which collapsed in 2019 after a failed summit with Trump during his first term.
South Korean intelligence estimates that North Korea has sent about 15,000 troops to Russia since last fall, along with large shipments of artillery and ballistic missiles, to support Moscow’s war effort. Pyongyang has also agreed to send thousands of military construction workers and deminers to the Kursk region, a deployment Seoul believes could take place soon.
