Kim Jong Un promises Putin “invariable support” in a “sacred war”
The message, carried by KCNA, answers Putin’s greeting on North Korea’s 78th founding anniversary and repeats a pledge to deepen the 2024 alliance.
Pyongyang2 min read
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Kim Jong Un told Vladimir Putin he was “firmly convinced of the victory of the Russian Federation in the present sacred war to defend the national security interests and the international justice” and promised “invariable support” to “dear friend you and the fraternal Russian people.” The Korean Central News Agency published the letter on Tuesday. It was written in reply to Putin’s congratulations on the 78th anniversary of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, marked on 9 September.
Kim said the two states were “continuously writing a new biography of the great history of alliance” and that Pyongyang’s will to “expand and deepen” joint work with Moscow “in a comprehensive way” remained “steadfast without doubt.” He did not list the work. South Korean and Western reporting has treated that phrase as cover for the military and economic traffic that has grown since 2022.
North Korea and Russia signed a comprehensive strategic partnership in June 2024, during Putin’s visit to Pyongyang. The treaty calls for military assistance “without delay” if either side is attacked. South Korea’s National Intelligence Service has said Pyongyang shipped munitions in bulk and sent about 15,000 troops to help Russian forces in the Kursk region, with roughly 2,000 of those soldiers killed. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that the two sides have discussed deployments of up to 50,000.
What the letter does not say
The text does not mention Ukraine by name. “Sacred war” is the formula KCNA used. Reuters, Yonhap, UPI and Ukrainian outlets read it as the war against Ukraine. Kim also skipped any public accounting of what North Korea has received in return. Intelligence assessments in Seoul have pointed to fuel, cash and military technology.
Anniversary letters between the two capitals are routine. The value of this one is the timing and the adjective. NATO jets had just destroyed a drone over Lithuania. A Russian frigate had fired flares at a Danish helicopter. Talk of an energy-target pause between Moscow and Kyiv was already fraying. Kim chose that week to tell Putin the support would not vary.
North Korea remains the only third country known to have put ground troops into the war. The letter keeps that fact inside the language of alliance history rather than of a battlefield contract. For readers outside Pyongyang the usable content is short: the leader repeated the 2024 treaty in writing, called the war sacred, and promised the support would not change.
