When Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to Pyongyang in June 2024, his first visit to North Korea in nearly a quarter century, the optics were striking. Russian flags and portraits of Putin adorned the capital, where he was treated to an elaborate welcome ceremony with a military honor guard and groups of balloon-toting children. But this was to be expected; such pageantry is a hallmark of North Korean politics. Less anticipated was the substance of Putin’s subsequent meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership the two men signed that day formalized a relationship that had been quietly taking shape since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022: a military alliance between two nuclear-armed pariah states. By October 2024, around 11,000 North Korean troops had been deployed to Russia, primarily in the Kursk region along Ukraine’s northeastern border, to support Russian combat operations. By late April 2025, South Korean intelligence assessments put Pyongyang’s troop presence at around 15,000, and at least half that number remain deployed.

The partnership has made a significant difference in Russia’s war effort. North Korea’s conventional military is often written off as small and underdeveloped, but the country has become a key supplier of artillery ammunition, select missiles, and manpower to Russia. In February 2025, Ukraine’s military intelligence chief publicly claimed that North Korea was providing about half the ammunition Russia was using at the front. Based on Ukrainian military intelligence estimates from November 2025, North Korea has supplied Russian forces with around 6.5 million artillery rounds since 2023 and with sophisticated long-range self-propelled artillery systems and multiple launch rocket systems since late 2024.

Continue reading at foreignaffairs.com