By ANEZKA PICHRTOVA Published: 10:30 BST, 18 September 2025 | Updated: 11:22 BST, 18 September 2025
In the alliance between Russia and North Korea, Vladimir Putin seems to be getting more out of the relationship than North Korea. To the Western world, the two dictators present themselves as close allies in the matter of Russia's war against Ukraine. 'Putin is practically ripping North Korea off. North Korea appears to be benefiting little materially from his support for the war of aggression,' said Frederic Spohr, head of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation's office in South Korea for the Bild.A study by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation suggests that while North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent almost $10 billion worth of military aid to his Russian counterpart to help fight the war, Putin's help did not play any part in North Korea's technological or economic growth. 'The analysis finds that since 2023, North Korea has delivered arms worth an estimated 5.6 to 9.8 billion US dollars to Russia. These shipments include millions of artillery shells, mortar rounds, and rockets, hundreds of artillery pieces and launchers, short-range ballistic missiles, as well as the deployment of roughly 15,000 soldiers,' the report reads. Russia's aid to North Korea is supposed to be mainly composed of 'food, oil, air-defence systems' with a maximum worth of $1.19 billion. There is also no indication of a foreign currency flow into North Korea. Bild reported that the North Korean won has been declining since January 2024, while inflation in the country keeps rising. Only the elites surrounding the dictator have had access to enjoy purchases in Russia since the beginning of the alliance. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaking with Russia's President Vladimir Putin in Beijing during the Victory Day parade in Beijing on September 3.The study author Olena Guseinova told Bild: 'North Korea has provided Russia with enormous military support. But Moscow appears to be reciprocating only slowly and to a limited extent. 'There may be a calculation behind this: Moscow is keeping Pyongyang on the hook, thus cultivating a growing dependence.'The report suggests North Korea could be in this unequal alliance for the long run, with the 'opportunity to test weapon systems under real battlefield conditions'. The appeal is also in the possible reduction in the isolation of North Korea, which lies in the alliance with Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council.Earlier this year, the head of Ukraine's military intelligence agency, Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov, told the media that Russia is assisting North Korea in the modernisation of its nuclear weapons. Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong Un in Beijing during the Victory Day parade on September 3.The alliance between the two dictators continues to worry Western leaders. Most recently, US President Donald Trump expressed his concerns over Chinese President Xi Jinping's meeting with Putin and the North Korean leader during the Victory Day parade in Beijing on September 3. 'Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against The United States of America,' wrote Trump in a post on Truth Social. The NATO chief Mark Rutte said during the Prague Defence Summit 2025, the West has 'an advantage in the unity and in NATO' against the threat the 'hand-holding' of China, Russia and North Korea poses to NATO.
