Russian President, Vladimir Putin has expressed appreciation for North Korea’s help in retaking Russia’s Kursk region from Ukrainian forces during a call with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
According to North Korean state media reports, Putin lauded “the bravery, heroism and self-sacrificing spirit displayed by service personnel of the Korean People’s Army.”
On his part, Kim expressed his “heartfelt thanks” to Putin and said that Pyongyang would “always remain faithful” to the spirit of the mutual defence treaty signed by the sides last year, as well as “fully support all measures to be taken by the Russian leadership in the future,” the state media said.
“The heads of states of the two countries exchanged views on the issues of mutual concern. Kim Jong Un and Putin agreed to make closer contact in the future.”
North Korean State News Agency
North Korea has deployed more than 10,000 troops to support Russia’s war and has drawn up plans to dispatch thousands more, according to assessments by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service.
In April, Putin announced that Moscow had fully recaptured Kursk, though Ukrainian officials disputed his claim that the entire region had been brought under Russian control.
Meanwhile, Russian forces have made a sudden thrust into eastern Ukraine near the coal mining town of Dobropillia, a move that may be an attempt to increase the pressure on Kyiv to give up land ahead of the summit with Trump.
Ukraine’s authoritative DeepState war map showed on Tuesday, August 12, 2025, that Russian forces had advanced by at least 10 km (six miles) north in two prongs in recent days, part of their drive to take full control of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Russia was planning new ground assaults on at least three different areas of the front line.
The call between Putin and Kim came days before Putin is set to meet United States President, Donald Trump in Alaska to discuss efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that Putin updated North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un on his upcoming talks with Trump in Alaska this week.
North Korea’s state news agency, KCNA later reported the two leaders’ call without mentioning the meeting scheduled on Friday between Putin and Trump.
At his scheduled summit with Putin on Friday, August 15, 2025, Trump is expected to press the Russian leader to agree to a peace deal. On Monday, he told reporters that he will probably know within the “first two minutes” of meeting Putin whether they can reach a deal and that any agreement would involve “some swapping, changes in land” between Moscow and Kyiv.
Latest Sign Of Strengthening Ties Between North Korea And Russia
The call between Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un is the latest sign of strengthening ties between North Korea and Russia amid Moscow’s ostracisation on the world stage.
Jenny Town, the Director of the Korea programme at the Stimson Center in Washington, DC, told a news agency, using the acronym for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, that there are “a lot of ifs still in the air, but the call suggests there’s a role for Russia, similar to the role South Korea played in 2018, in helping create an opening for US-DPRK relations.”
“It might not be a focal point of the upcoming meeting, but it is likely to be part of the conversation.”
Jenny Town
Last month, the North Korean leader told Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov that Pyongyang would “unconditionally support” all actions taken by Moscow in Ukraine, according to North Korean state media reports.
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