North Korea just declared its alliance with Russia permanent
1 hour ago · 7 October 2026Share
Official portrait of Vladimir Putin. Russian Presidential Press and Information Office · CC BY 4.0
Kim Jong-un just promised to go deeper into his alliance with Russia.
He wrote it in a birthday letter to Vladimir Putin, who just turned 74.
North Korea's state news agency, KCNA, put the message out a few hours ago.
Kim opened it calling Putin "my dearest friend." He closed it "I warmly embrace you, my dear comrade."
So this is personal, and it's public.
Kim said he expects Russia's war in Ukraine to end in victory. He called it a war to defend Russia's sovereignty, security interests and territorial integrity.
That's North Korea's leader, in his own words, backing Russia's war outright.
And Kim didn't stop at well-wishes.
He said North Korea attaches great importance to its comprehensive strategic partnership and alliance with Russia. He called it a policy his government won't move away from, and a choice that's personally his.
So Kim is saying this alliance isn't temporary. It's permanent. And it's his.
Now here's where this partnership actually started.
In June 2024, Putin flew to Pyongyang. He and Kim signed a mutual defence pact. That pact is the reason North Korean weapons have been flowing to Russia ever since. It's also the reason North Korean soldiers are fighting in Russia's war right now.
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Pyongyang by SPOT-5 Satellite. File photo. Cnes - Spot Image · CC BY-SA 3.0
South Korea's National Intelligence Service estimates North Korea has sent around 15,000 troops to help Russia fight Ukraine. The same agency estimates roughly 2,000 of them have been killed, as of three weeks ago.
Other estimates of both numbers vary a lot. Some put the troop total as low as 10,000, others as high as 22,000. Death toll estimates range from the hundreds to over 2,000. North Korea and Russia have never officially confirmed either figure.
So this letter isn't the start of anything. It's Kim putting his name on an alliance that has already cost North Korean lives.
Two outlets reported the same letter, two different ways. TASS, Russia's state news agency, called it a birthday telegram. Korea Times, citing Yonhap, called it a letter.
But both carry the exact same quotes from Kim, word for word. So this is one message, reported two ways. Not two different events.
No Western government has responded yet.
Here's what we don't know. Whether this letter means anything beyond words. A new weapons shipment. More troops sent. A more open partnership between the two countries. The letter itself doesn't say.
And here's something else worth knowing. This isn't even the first time this year Kim has sent Putin a message like this. He sent one in mid-September too, around North Korea's founding anniversary, promising the same invariable support.
So this isn't a one-off gesture. It's a pattern Kim keeps repeating, in public, every chance he gets.
Here's what it does say.
Kim sees no reason to step back. Two years after that defence pact, with thousands of his own soldiers dead or still fighting in a war that isn't North Korea's, Kim Jong-un used Vladimir Putin's birthday to say one thing.
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