Vladimir Putin hails North Korean soldiers' 'heroic entry' into Kursk in New Year message to Kim Jong-un: 'Invincible friendship'
The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, attends the informal summit of the leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), in Saint Petersburg, on December 21, 2025. PHOTO: Alexander KAZAKOV / AFP / Profimedia
Vladimir Putin praised the “invincible friendship” between Russia and North Korea, which have grown closer amid the war in Ukraine, in a congratulatory letter addressed to leader Kim Jong Un, the official North Korean agency reported on Thursday, according to News.ro. North Korea does not celebrate Christmas, and December 24 is a public holiday, marking the birthday of Kim Jong-suk, the grandmother of Kim Jong-un and the first wife of Kim Il-sung, North Korea's founding dictator. According to the EFE agency, the message was sent on the occasion of the New Year.
The Russian president says that the participation of North Korean soldiers in Moscow's war effort in Ukraine proves the “militant brotherhood” between the two states, in the letter received last week by Pyongyang.
“The heroic entry of the soldiers of the Korean People's Army into the battles for the liberation of the Kursk region from the occupiers and the subsequent activities of the Korean engineers on Russian territory clearly proved this invincible friendship,” Putin wrote, according to the official KCNA news agency.
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North Korea's involvement in the war in Ukraine
The solid ties between Pyongyang and Moscow “will contribute to the establishment of a just order in a multipolar world”, the Russian president added.
North Korea actively participated in the Russian war effort, supplying soldiers to repel the Ukrainian advance in the Kursk region.
The two countries are linked by a mutual defense agreement signed in 2024, on the occasion of a visit by Vladimir Putin to North Korea.
South Korean intelligence estimates that around 10,000 soldiers from the North participated in the war against Ukraine and that 2,000 of them died.
It was only in April that North Korea confirmed that it had sent troops to support Russia's war in Ukraine and admitted that its soldiers had been killed in action.
Putin skips the State of the Nation address again. He did it only once more, in 2022
Separately, the Kremlin announced Thursday that Putin will not deliver his State of the Nation address this year, a constitutionally mandated speech that has only been canceled once, in 2022, the year Russia invaded Ukraine, EFE news agency notes, according to Agerpres.
“There will be no state of the nation speech this year,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told local media.
According to Peskov, the intervention in the joint chambers of the Russian parliament “will take place at the right time.”
“It is a decision of the head of state, given that it is his speech (…). It will take place as soon as the president considers it necessary, both in terms of content and his work schedule,” he added.
Putin never canceled this speech before the war and not even during the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 and 2021.
The first time Putin did not give a speech was in 2022, the first year of the invasion of Ukraine, amid the Ukrainian military's counteroffensive, which drove Russian troops out of vast swaths of Kharkiv and Kherson regions.
According to the Constitution, the head of state must address both houses of parliament every year to update them on the management of the state, social and economic programs and plans for the coming year.
Currently, Russia's declining economy, the slow advance of Russian forces in Ukraine and the poor prospects for a peace deal could be the reasons why Putin has again postponed his speech to the Federal Assembly.
Instead, Putin held the traditional press conference last week and also answered questions from Russian citizens.
