Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu, a top security official and former defense minister, arrived in North Korea on Friday, the second high-level contact between the two countries since Russian strongman Vladimir Putin held an hours-long phone conversation with American President Donald Trump this week.
Prior to Shoigu’s arrival in Pyongyang, the communist government of North Korea sent two delegations to Moscow, reportedly to discuss economic and health issues, respectively. The flurry of diplomacy appears to be an overture by communist dictator Kim Jong-un to continue cultivating a closer relationship with Russia – potentially at the expense of China – since welcoming Putin to Pyongyang last summer for the first time in two decades.
The major deliverable of Putin’s trip to Pyongyang was the signing of a mutual defense agreement that preceded widespread reports of North Korean soldiers appearing on the ground fighting against Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has estimated publicly that North Korea deployed thousands of soldiers to help the ongoing Russian invasion of his country in late 2024 and published videos alleging to show interviews by Ukrainians of captured North Korean soldiers. Neither Russia nor North Korea has confirmed any formal North Korean troop involvement in the invasion.
Should Putin be considering a ceasefire proposal reportedly discussed with Trump, as the Russian government has suggested, such a deal would require a pullback of the reported North Korean presence on the border.
The North Korean state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) confirmed that Shoigu and his delegation had arrived in the country on Friday. Outside of reporting on the delegation honoring the state religion of North Korea – Marxist worship of founder Kim Il-sung and his family – and visiting a monument for fallen Soviet soldiers, KCNA has not offered any further details at press time.
The Russian news agency Tass, however, reported that Shoigu addressed the Ukraine war during a meeting with Kim.
“I would like to express my gratitude to our Korean friends for solidarity with Russia’s position on all critical geopolitical issues and on the Ukrainian issue in particular,” Tass quoted Shoigu as saying. “Russia highly values the achieved level of strategic relations between the countries and is committed to deepen them.”
Separately, KCNA published a screed on Friday informing citizens of Zelensky’s catastrophic visit to the White House in late February, in which Trump and Zelensky were expected to sign a deal on jointly exploiting mineral resources in Ukraine but never did following Zelensky’s attempts to publicly relitigate the agreement. Trump ultimately expelled Zelensky from the White House, declaring he was not ready for peace with Russia.
KCNA omitted the details of the visit but told North Koreans the latest visit was a “gaffe,” citing the Russian Foreign Ministry.
“During his visit to Washington, Zelensky has proved to be a war provoker and the biggest threat to the international community by his shameless behavior,” KCNA claimed, citing the Russian government. “[A Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman] added that U.S. President Trump, in the White House, rebuked Zelensky sternly enough to sober him up.”
The report is meaningful because North Korea outlaws the consumption of any media not created by its repressive regime, so the only news that average North Korean citizens have access to is that which the regime deems appropriate to share. Having knowledge of the meeting between Trump and Zelensky in North Korea prior to Friday would have been illegal, and sharing the information appears to be a bid to sour public sentiment further against Ukraine – and potentially frame Trump as slightly lesser of an enemy.
Shoigu’s arrival in North Korea followed a corresponding visit to Russia by North Korean officials. The South Korean newspaper Korea JoongAng Daily indicated that North Korean experts expected the visits would revolve around discussions about the Ukraine invasion and Pyongyang’s role in it, though again KCNA has offered few details. According to JoongAng, the ministries of health and external economic relations both sent separate groups of experts to Russia this week. The North Korean state newspaper Rodong Sinmun reported on the delegations’ arrivals but not what they discussed.
“The move fueled speculation that Pyongyang is positioning itself to demand compensation for its military support to Moscow — ranging from weapons supplies to troop deployments — throughout the conflict,” JoongAng suggested, adding, “While the newspaper did not specify the delegation’s objectives, analysts widely believe the visit is linked to the war-ending roadmap shaped by Trump and Putin.”
President Trump described his conversation with Putin on Tuesday as “very good and productive,” claiming that Putin “agreed to an immediate Ceasefire on all Energy and Infrastructure.”
“Many elements of a Contract for Peace were discussed, including the fact that thousands of soldiers are being killed, and both President Putin and President Zelenskyy would like to see it end,” he added.
An end to Russian aggression against Ukraine would require an end to North Korean military activities to support that aggression. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) estimated in a report on January 11 that about 12,000 North Korean troops had been deployed to the Ukraine war front, slightly more than the 10,000 that Zelensky initially claimed his intelligence indicated were fighting against his forces.
In January, the Ukrainian government published videos it claimed showed two North Korean combatants captured fighting on the Russian side of the war.
The Ukrainian government thanked South Korea for providing translators to communicate with the soldiers, who said they believed they were being flown in for “training,” not for active hostilities against Ukraine. Zelensky has offered potential asylum to North Koreans caught fighting who do not wish to return home.
“For those North Korean soldiers who do not wish to return, there may be other options available,” he said at the time. “In particular, those who express a desire to bring peace closer by spreading the truth about this war in Korean will be given that opportunity.”
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