N Korea, Russia bound in ‘blood’ of war, Kim tells Putin in New Year note

North Korean, Russian leaders send New Year’s greetings hailing their ‘precious’ shared experience of ‘blood, life and death’ in Ukraine war.Published On 27 Dec 2025North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said that his country’s ties with Russia had been strengthened through “sharing blood, life and death in the same trench” in the Ukraine war, as he sent a New Year’s greeting to Russian President Vladimir Putin.Kim’s message followed President Putin’s own New Year’s greeting to the North Korean leader on December 18, which praised the “heroic” role played by Pyongyang’s troops in Russia’s western Kursk region and “clearly proved the invincible friendship” between the two countries, state media reported.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4New York to require social media platforms to display mental health labelslist 2 of 4Keir Starmer says Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah back in UKlist 3 of 4Has the fight against al-Shabab failed?list 4 of 4Israeli forces kill Palestinian in Gaza, carry out raids across West Bankend of listIn his message to Putin, published by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Saturday, Kim said 2025 was a “really meaningful year” for bilateral ties, and called relations between Moscow and Pyongyang a “precious common asset to be carried forward forever not only in the present era but also by posterity generation after generation”.“Now no one can break the relations between the peoples of the two countries and their unity,” Kim said, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.South Korean and Western intelligence agencies say North Korea deployed thousands of troops to support Moscow in its war against Ukraine.Troops attend a military parade to mark the 75th founding anniversary of North Korea’s army, at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea [File: KCNA via Reuters]North Korea officially confirmed in April that it had deployed troops to support Russia’s military campaign against Ukraine and that its soldiers had been killed in combat.