Russia and North Korea are building a "new and just world order"

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told his North Korean counterpart that their countries were working to establish a "new and just world order" after Pyongyang helped Moscow push Ukrainian forces out of the Kursk region last year.

In a message to North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui, Lavrov also reiterated Moscow's pledge to strengthen cooperation in all areas and contribute to regional and international security, North Korea's KCNA news agency reported today.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent an estimated 14.000 troops to Russia in late 2024 to help Moscow repel a major Ukrainian advance into the Kursk region. Russian President Vladimir Putin declared victory in May 2025 and publicly thanked Pyongyang for its assistance.

North Korea and Russia continue to establish "a new and just world order based on true equality and national interests," KCNA quoted Lavrov as saying in the message.

"The participation of members of the Korean People's Army in the operations to expel the Ukrainian Nazi clique and foreign mercenaries from Kursk is clear evidence of the tradition of combat friendship forged by heroic previous generations," Lavrov said.

Since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has often sought to portray President Volodymyr Zelensky's government as "Nazis" persecuting Ukraine's Russian-speaking population. Zelensky, who is Jewish, and his Western allies reject such characterizations as absurd.

South Korea and Western countries are concerned that Pyongyang, in exchange for helping Russia in the war in Ukraine, could receive support from Moscow in developing weapons.

Earlier this month, Zelensky said that up to 50.000 North Korean soldiers could be sent to Russia as part of a new deployment of forces to increase military pressure on Ukraine.

According to Ukrainian and independent estimates, Pyongyang has also supplied Russia with millions of artillery and mortar shells, ballistic missiles, long-range artillery and multiple rocket systems.