North Korean troops marched in Russia’s Victory Day military parade in Moscow for the first time, with Russian President Vladimir Putin personally thanking a North Korean military commander afterward, according to North Korean state media Sunday, in a fresh display of deepening military ties between Pyongyang and Moscow.
The Korean Central News Agency said a mixed formation of the Korean People’s Army’s ground, naval and air forces participated in Friday’s parade at Moscow’s Red Square, marking the 81st anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
According to the report, the North Korean troops took part at Russia’s invitation. After the ceremony, Putin met the commander of the North Korean marching unit and expressed his gratitude, the KCNA said.
Russian media previously described the event as the first time North Korean soldiers had marched alongside Russian troops in the annual Victory Day parade.
North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, devoted its front two pages to the event. It published photos and detailed the parade atmosphere, Putin’s speech and his meeting with North Korean military officials.
The newspaper highlighted the Russian national flags and Soviet Victory Banner in Red Square, while also emphasizing Putin’s meetings with veterans of the Ukraine war and North Korean commanders.
Pyongyang has deployed around 15,000 troops to support Russia’s war against Ukraine since North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Putin signed a “Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership” in June 2024, according to South Korean intelligence assessments.
An expert in Seoul said the highly publicized participation of North Korean troops in the parade suggested the two countries were increasingly portraying their relationship as a formal military alliance rather than a limited wartime partnership.
“The participation of a mixed formation of ground, naval and air forces — rather than just infantry troops — effectively formalized solidarity at the level of North Korea’s entire military,” said Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies.
Lim said Putin’s direct mention of North Korean troops’ role in the “liberation of Kursk” appeared to elevate them beyond auxiliary forces to what he described as “saviors” who helped reclaim Russian territory.
“The fact that Putin personally met the North Korean commander after the parade, despite them being a foreign military contingent, suggests they were effectively treated as allied forces on par with Russia’s regular military,” he said.
Lim described the event as symbolizing the completion of a North Korea-Russia “blood alliance.”
“During the Korean War, North Korea received Soviet support. Seventy-six years later, Pyongyang is now portraying itself as having helped retake Russian territory,” he said.
He added that North Korea appeared intent on reframing the image of its troop deployment to Russia by shedding the stigma of being a mere “dispatched force” and instead presenting its soldiers as a “righteous unit” that fought against what Pyongyang frames as “Nazism” and North Atlantic Treaty Organization-backed forces.
Lim also said Pyongyang was likely seeking compensation from Moscow by emphasizing that North Korean troops had defended Russian territory “with blood,” while using the Victory Day parade to glorify battlefield experience gained in Ukraine and strengthen domestic regime legitimacy.
“North Korea is signaling that it is a core partner in Russia’s confrontation with the US and NATO, and that military cooperation with Moscow will deepen further as pressure from Washington increases,” he said.
He added that Pyongyang also appeared eager to demonstrate that, just as South Korea relies on its alliance with the US, North Korea has secured a relationship with nuclear-armed Russia that could entail near-automatic intervention in a contingency.
“By repeatedly citing Putin’s speech, North Korea is criticizing what it calls US aggression while portraying itself as a key actor in an emerging multipolar world order,” Lim said.
mkjung@heraldcorp.com
