Putin says relations with North Korea are "going to plan"
Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin has asked North Korea's Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui to let the country's leader, Kim Jong Un, know that relations between Russia and North Korea are "going according to plan".
Source: Reuters
Details: "Everything is going according to plan. Please give him [Kim] my best wishes," Putin said during talks at the Kremlin.
Reuters noted that Putin and Kim signed a strategic partnership agreement last year that includes mutual defence commitments. North Korea has supplied Russia with troops, artillery shells and rockets to support its war against Ukraine.
Ukraine and South Korea estimate that North Korea has sent more than 10,000 troops to fight in Ukraine in exchange for economic and military-technical aid from Russia.
South Korea's intelligence agency estimated in September that around 2,000 North Korean soldiers have been killed in combat.
During her visit to Moscow, Choe also met with her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, to discuss bilateral relations and regional dynamics in Asia.
Background:
- In April, both North Korea and Russia confirmed the participation of North Korean troops in Russia's war against Ukraine. Reports indicated that North Korean troops were being deployed in Russia's Kursk Oblast, then partially under the control of Ukraine's Armed Forces.
- Both countries stated that their cooperation is based on an agreement signed by Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un in June last year, which includes provisions on mutual defence.
- When Lavrov visited North Korea in July 2025, Kim Jong Un told him that his country was prepared to "unconditionally support" all of Moscow's actions, including those related to the war in Ukraine.
- Kyrylo Budanov, Head of Ukraine's Defence Intelligence, told Bloomberg in an earlier interview that North Korea was supplying up to 40% of the ammunition used by Russia in its war against Ukraine as the partnership between Pyongyang and Moscow deepened.
- In August, Putin held a phone call with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, during which he briefed him on the course of the war in Ukraine and thanked him for his support ahead of a meeting with US President Donald Trump in Alaska.
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