North Korea has missed no opportunities to voice support for the Russian Federation over the past month. The most recent example is a congratulatory letter to Vladimir Putin from Kim Jong Un on the occasion of Russia’s Victory Day celebrations, which comes on the heels of the DPRK foreign ministry’s exuberant commemoration of the 3rd anniversary of Kim and Putin’s April 2019 summit in Vladivostok.  

The laudations of DPRK-Russia ties in North Korean state media since the outbreak of war in Ukraine are more than just commemorative expressions — they belie the formation of real, new strands in the web of relations between Russia and the two Koreas.