An unbreakable friendship and heroic soldiers… Putin’s New Year message to Kim
Russian President Vladimir Putin praised what he called an “unbreakable friendship” between Russia and North Korea in a New Year message sent to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
In the letter, which Pyongyang received last week, Putin also commended the support provided by North Korean soldiers to Moscow in its war against Ukraine, describing it as evidence of a genuine “brotherhood in struggle” between the two countries.
South Korean and Western intelligence agencies estimate that North Korea sent more than ten thousand soldiers to Russia in 2024, along with quantities of ammunition and long-range rocket systems.
Message details
In the letter, Putin said that “the heroic entry of North Korean army soldiers into the battles to liberate the Kursk region, and the subsequent activities of North Korean engineers on Russian soil, clearly demonstrated an unbreakable friendship.”
He added that the provisions of the “historic treaty on comprehensive strategic partnership,” signed during his visit to Pyongyang last June, had been implemented “thanks to our joint efforts.”
The agreement includes a mutual-defense clause requiring each side to provide immediate military support if the other faces armed aggression.
Putin stressed that strong relations between Moscow and Pyongyang “will help build a fair, multipolar world order.”
According to assessments by intelligence agencies in Seoul, around two thousand North Korean soldiers are believed to have been killed in Russia.
North Korea acknowledged in April that it had deployed forces to support Moscow and admitted that some of its soldiers had been killed in combat.
Since then, leader Kim has met with the families of soldiers who died in Russia, speaking of their “unbearable pain,” while state media published images of him embracing a soldier returning from the battlefield.
Following last year’s military agreement between Moscow and Pyongyang, Seoul — under former conservative president Yoon Suk-yeol — raised the possibility of reconsidering weapons supplies to Kyiv, despite domestic restrictions that currently prevent such action. So far, that possibility has not materialized.
