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Moscow and Pyongyang's budding 'romance'
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin. © Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool/EPA/MaxPPP / Indigo Publications - 2024

Running story
Moscow and Pyongyang's budding 'romance'

At odds with the West, Russia is looking for new allies. Military assistance, industrial and academic cooperation, currency and technology transfers plus other goodwill gestures: North Korea is emerging as a new partner of choice for Moscow, whose diplomats have been intensively courting their counterparts in Pyongyang since the spring of 2022. 

Moscow and Pyongyang's budding 'romance'
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin. © Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool/EPA/MaxPPP / Indigo Publications - 2024

Spotlight | North Korea, Russia
Alongside troop deployments to Ukraine, Pyongyang increases infrastructure projects with Moscow

After providing early details of the planned deployment of North Korean soldiers in Ukraine, Intelligence Online can now reveal the many logistical and energy projects being secretly developed between North Korea and Russia.

Russia's Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology Alexander Kozlov with North Korea's External Economic Relations Minister Yun Jong Ho in Pyongyang, 21 November 2024.
LogoSubscribers only Government Intelligence 16.12.2024
Russia's Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology Alexander Kozlov with North Korea's External Economic Relations Minister Yun Jong Ho in Pyongyang, 21 November 2024.

North Korea, Russia
Russian coal set to be shipped via North Korea

Moscow and Pyongyang have finalised a deal to export Russian coal to Asia via the North Korean port of Rason. The route will afford new ways into the global market for this raw material, which is subject to Western sanctions.

The North Korean port of Rason.
LogoSubscribers only International Dealmaking 11.12.2024
The North Korean port of Rason.

Spotlight | North Korea, Russia
Clock ticks for Russia's Security Council to get Pyongyang military alliance ratified

Intelligence Online can reveal the details of how Moscow's supreme security body is coordinating all aspects of North Korea's troop reinforcements in Russia - while carefully monitoring reactions in Beijing and Seoul.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and Korean leader Kim Jong-un, in Pyongyang, 19 June 2024.
LogoSubscribers only Government Intelligence 04.11.2024
Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and Korean leader Kim Jong-un, in Pyongyang, 19 June 2024.

North Korea, Russia
Not just soldiers, thousands of North Koreans working undercover in Russia

The Kremlin is finding inventive ways to circumvent UN sanctions banning the employment of North Korean labour. Intelligence Online has uncovered a tried-and-tested student visa system that enables thousands of Pyongyang inhabitants to be put to work in construction.

Russian Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology Alexander Kozlov and North Korean President Kim Jong-un during a visit to the Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok, Russia, on 17 September 2023.
LogoSubscribers only Government Intelligence 22.10.2024
Russian Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology Alexander Kozlov and North Korean President Kim Jong-un during a visit to the Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok, Russia, on 17 September 2023.

China, North Korea, Russia
Russia and North Korea agree to grant China direct access to North Pacific

Capitalising on the opportunities afforded by the war in Ukraine, China has quietly secured unlimited access to the North Pacific via the Tumen River, thanks to an agreement between Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un. This also allows Beijing to bypass Taiwan.

The Kuril Islands and the Tumen River in the Indo-Pacific (illustration).
Free access Government Intelligence 09.07.2024
The Kuril Islands and the Tumen River in the Indo-Pacific (illustration).

Iran, North Korea, Russia, Ukraine
Iran and North Korea munition support to Russia could slow

Kyiv believes Tehran and Pyongyang will decrease their munition deliveries to Moscow, while Ukraine and its allies ramp up their volumes.

Gunners from the Ukrainian armed forces fire a 2C22 Bohdana 155mm self-propelled howitzer at a Russian position in the Kharkiv region on 21 April 2024.
LogoSubscribers only Government Intelligence 30.04.2024
Gunners from the Ukrainian armed forces fire a 2C22 Bohdana 155mm self-propelled howitzer at a Russian position in the Kharkiv region on 21 April 2024.

China, North Korea, Russia
Beijing lets North Korean workers protest near border to pressure Pyongyang

North Korean workers in China are protesting near the border with North Korea under the watchful eye of China's Ministry of State Security. Kim Jong-un's regime can't do anything to stop the demonstrations, except realign itself to Beijing's interests.

LogoSubscribers only Government Intelligence 29.02.2024

North Korea, Russia
Russia planning for half a million North Koreans to replace Muslim construction workers

Amid concessions to Pyongyang and the FSB's new ethno-security considerations, Moscow is secretly preparing to import 500,000 North Korean workers.

LogoSubscribers only International Dealmaking 10.01.2024

North Korea, Russia, Ukraine
North Korean labourers dispatched to rebuild Donbas

Unofficial Kremlin-mandated sherpas are discreetly accompanying the first batches of North Korean workers to their dormitories and workplaces in Eastern Ukraine where they have been tasked with rebuilding war-devastated areas.

LogoSubscribers only International Dealmaking 08.01.2024

North Korea, Russia
Russian tax authorities watchful of counter-proliferation issues with Pyongyang

The rapprochement between Pyongyang and Moscow, illustrated by Kim Jong-un's recent visit to Vladimir Putin, has not deterred Russia's tax authorities from taking a keen interest in counter-proliferation issues with North Korea.

LogoSubscribers only Government Intelligence 25.09.2023

North Korea, Russia, Ukraine
North Korean labourers ready to start rebuilding the Donbass in mid-July

Russian deputy PM Marat Khusnullin's teams are ready to start welcoming North Korean building workers in Moscow before sending them off into the territories occupied by Russia in eastern Ukraine. The operation is creating a lot of work for Russia's security and para-security services.

LogoSubscribers only Government Intelligence 30.06.2023

Spotlight | North Korea, Russia, Ukraine
Boxers and North Korean construction workers to help rebuild occupied regions of Ukraine

The Russian deputy prime minister, Marat Khusnullin, is leveraging his contacts in the sports world to bolster his plans to rebuild Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine with the help of North Korean builders.

The Russian Head of State, Vladimir Putin, and the President of the Russian Boxing Federation, Umar Kremlev.
LogoSubscribers only Government Intelligence 24.04.2023
The Russian Head of State, Vladimir Putin, and the President of the Russian Boxing Federation, Umar Kremlev.

North Korea, Russia, Ukraine
Pyongyang's planned military technology transfers from Donbass

North Korea is putting together the necessary infrastructure to collect and receive Western military systems seized in the occupied territories in eastern Ukraine, using proven methods to effect the illegal technology transfers.

LogoSubscribers only International Dealmaking 23.09.2022

North Korea, Russia
Moscow to back North Korea's upcoming missile tests at the UN

Based on their own observations and diplomatic contacts with Pyongyang, the Russian intelligence services expect North Korea to test an inter-continental ballistic missile before 20 September and possibly carry out a nuclear test subsequently in response to a recent South Korean-US military exercise.

LogoSubscribers only Government Intelligence 12.09.2022

North Korea, Russia
Talks due on role for North Korean special forces in Ukraine

The North Korean leader may meet his Russian counterpart in Vladivostok to discuss a possible deployment - sign of an unprecedented rapprochement between the two sanctions-hit countries.

Nighttime military parade to mark the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army in Pyongyang, in North Korea.
LogoSubscribers only Government Intelligence 30.08.2022
Nighttime military parade to mark the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army in Pyongyang, in North Korea.

North Korea, Russia
Isolated Moscow revives industrial and academic relations with Pyongyang

Ater a break of two years caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, Moscow wants to resume a series of joint industrial projects with its Asian neighbour, while staying within the tight restrictions imposed by the United Nations.

LogoSubscribers only International Dealmaking 19.07.2022

North Korea, Russia
Pyongyang in talks with Moscow on access to Donbass

North Korean diplomats recently attended several meetings at Russia's foreign affairs ministry to discuss their country's possible role in Donetsk and Lugansk. Pyongyang is reported to have asked for access to Western weapons seized by Moscow and to have offered civilian manpower.

LogoSubscribers only Government Intelligence 20.06.2022

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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Moscow and Pyongyang's budding 'romance'

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