Putin Thanks North Korea Again as He Hosts Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui in Kremlin

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui at the Kremlin on Sunday, in the latest sign of the deepening alliance between Moscow and Pyongyang. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters afterward that Putin used the occasion to once again thank North Korea's leadership and people for their role in helping Russian forces retake the Kursk region following Ukraine's cross-border incursion.

According to Peskov, Putin said the contribution of North Korean soldiers who fought alongside Russian troops in Kursk would not be forgotten, noting that many of them had already been awarded Russian state decorations for their service. The remarks mark one of the clearest public acknowledgments yet of the scale of North Korea's direct military involvement in the war.

North Korean troops were deployed to the Kursk region in 2024 and continued to support Russian operations there into 2025, helping push back Ukrainian forces who had seized territory inside Russia in a surprise offensive. Western officials have said thousands of North Korean soldiers were sent to fight alongside Russian units, in what has become one of the most tangible examples of military cooperation between the two countries.

The partnership has been formalized through a comprehensive strategic treaty signed by Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in June 2024, which includes a mutual defense clause obligating each side to provide assistance if the other faces armed aggression. Since then, ties between Moscow and Pyongyang have expanded well beyond the battlefield, touching on economic cooperation, technology transfers and diplomatic coordination.

Choe Son-hui's visit to Moscow underscores the continuing high-level engagement between the two governments, even as the war in Ukraine drags on. Her meeting with Putin follows a series of exchanges between senior Russian and North Korean officials over the past two years, reflecting Pyongyang's growing importance as a security partner for Moscow amid its isolation from much of the West.

Neither the Kremlin nor North Korean state media released further details on what else was discussed during the meeting, though analysts say the talks likely touched on the broader trajectory of bilateral relations and coordination on the war in Ukraine.