Overview

• Pyongyang and Moscow marked the first anniversary of their Comprehensive Strategic Partnership by hailing their mutual defense treaty as an 'invincible alliance'.
• Russian Security Council chief Sergei Shoigu announced Kim Jong un’s plan to send 5,000 military construction workers and 1,000 deminers to Russia’s Kursk region for reconstruction and mine clearing.
• Officials say North Korea and Russia are discussing dispatching up to 25,000 North Korean workers to a drone production plant in the Alabuga special economic zone in Tatarstan.
• South Korean, U.S. and Ukrainian intelligence assessments estimate that around 14,000 North Korean soldiers have already served alongside Russian forces in Ukraine since October 2024.
• Analysts warn that the expanding cooperation risks breaching UN Security Council sanctions and could prompt Russia to provide military technology or other economic rewards to Pyongyang.