June 19 marks two years since Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un signed a mutual defense treaty in Pyongyang, the closest alignment between Russia and North Korea since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In that time, the partnership has reshaped both countries' militaries and pulled North Korea's economy out of years of stagnation, at a direct cost measured in thousands of casualties.
North Korean troops have fought alongside Russian forces in the war against Ukraine, North Korean missiles have struck Ukrainian cities, and millions of exported artillery shells have helped sustain Russia's war effort. North Korea has deployed approximately 14,000 troops to support Russian operations, according to a recent assessment from the American Enterprise Institute. The scale of that commitment has grown steadily since the first deployments began.
The human cost has been severe. About 11,000 North Korean troops were stationed in Russia's Kursk Oblast at the start of 2026, made up of roughly 10,000 combat troops and 1,000 engineer troops, according to South Korea's National Intelligence Service. The NIS estimated North Korea's losses in Kursk Oblast at about 6,000 troops killed or injured, a figure the UK's Defense Intelligence service independently corroborated earlier in June.
South Korean intelligence has tracked the casualty rate closely as the deployment has continued. By early 2026, South Korean intelligence agencies estimated that roughly 6,000 North Korean soldiers, more than a third of those deployed, had been killed or wounded fighting in Russia. Despite those losses, Pyongyang has continued sending replacement forces rather than scaling back its commitment.
North Korea's own assessment frames the casualties differently than Western intelligence does. South Korea's NIS noted that despite suffering 6,000 casualties, the North Korean military achieved real gains in modern combat tactics and battlefield data, along with weapons-system upgrades backed by Russian technical assistance. That framing suggests Pyongyang views the deployment as a costly but worthwhile investment in modernizing a military that had relied on Soviet-era equipment for decades.
The military relationship runs in both directions. A New York Times report found that Russia retrofitted first-person-view drones with North Korean-made cluster munitions, which scatter small explosives across a wide area on detonation. Pyongyang has also supplied Moscow with anti-tank missiles, short-range ballistic missiles, and anti-tank rockets as part of the broader defense agreement, which formally took effect in December 2024.
The economic payoff for North Korea has been substantial. North Korea's GDP grew 3.7% in 2024, its fastest pace in eight years, helped by an estimated $10 billion in arms sales to Russia and more than $500 million from deploying over 15,000 troops to the front lines. For a country that spent years under heavy international sanctions with minimal economic growth, that figure represents one of the most significant shifts in its modern economic trajectory.
Infrastructure investment between the two countries has expanded alongside the military cooperation. A new four-lane bridge over the Yalu River will significantly increase transport capacity compared to the existing single-track, single-lane structures connecting the two countries, and analysts say Kim is likely exploiting North Korea's increased strategic value to both Moscow and Beijing to maximize benefits for Pyongyang. The bridge project signals a level of long-term economic integration that goes well beyond wartime arms sales.
Diplomatic pressure over North Korea's nuclear program has continued in parallel, with limited effect. The United States, South Korea, and Japan reaffirmed their commitment to the complete denuclearization of North Korea during a Nuclear Consultative Group meeting in Seoul on June 11, while separately rejecting Russia's claim that North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons is a settled issue. North Korea responded on June 14 by stating that meaningful change in its position was not on the table.
Washington's broader attention has shifted elsewhere in recent weeks. A former US envoy said talks involving Ukraine, the US, and Russia are effectively paused as Washington focuses on Iran, while arguing that sanctions pressure on Moscow continues and that the Baltics and Eastern Europe remain safe because Russia lacks the resources to widen the war. Whether that pause holds, or whether the North Korea-Russia partnership keeps expanding while attention is elsewhere, will shape how much further this relationship deepens before either side reassesses its costs.
