Russia and the DPRK’s military cooperation is anti-imperialism in action
After months of gnashing of teeth and screaming by the imperialist press over mere rumours of DPRK military involvement in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, the governments of the DRPK and Russia have calmly confirmed that indeed, north Korean troops have been operating in the Kursk region in Russia.
The first stories breaking the ‘news’ that the two countries that had signed an agreement to defend each other had started, well, defending each other appeared towards the end of December of last year (‘North Korean soldier captured in Ukraine dies, reports say’, BBC online, 27 December 2024) with claims that Ukrainian forces had captured and injured ‘a north Korean soldier’.
Kiev and Seoul (read imperialist compradors) suddenly claimed that 10,000 Korean troops have been fighting in the Kursk region of Russia, with the US regime going further and claiming that 1,000 DPRK troops had been killed in action. Quite how the capture of an injured ‘north Korean’ soldier led to these figures was never demonstrated.
Some evidence was offered in the wake of these claims in the form of passports found. Eagle-eyed analysts quickly spotted that the passports were not written in Hangeul, used in Korea, but Cyrillic (a lettering system common to many countries comprising the former USSR) and that the passports stated that the holders were Tuvan, an ethnic group who mostly live in Central Russia.
In response, counter claims came forward denouncing that these were forged documents aimed at hiding the DPRK’s involvement in the conflict . While this is certainly possible, it seems to be rather convoluted as the DPRK and Russia had openly signed an agreement that allows both to parties to render military aid to the other.
Moreover, given the above claims of 10,000 troops there and 1,000 troops killed in action, why would the imperialist intelligence agencies rely on such flimsy and questionable evidence?
All this was quickly rendered redundant with the recognition that both Moscow and Pyongyang have now given to the heroic efforts of the DPRK soldiers in their defence of Russia.
Russia and People’s Korea
Those who have even a passing understanding of the history of Korea and the close ties between Soviet Russia and the DPRK could hardly be surprised at yet another example of fraternal support between the peoples of these two countries.
Not only were the founders of People’s Korea students of the Soviet experience, but also the Soviet Union materially supported Korea’s national-liberation efforts. During the Korean people’s struggle against the fascist Japanese occupiers of Korea and Manchuria, and later again during the Fatherland Liberation War (readers may know this simply as the ‘Korean war’), the Soviet Union and China provided materiel, manpower and expertise.
In the wake of WW2, once the Korean people had booted out the Japanese occupier after decades of struggle, the Soviet Union sent many experts and much machinery and goods to the northern part of Korea, to help consolidate the victory. The Soviet citizens there were present as comrades to support and advise as the Korean people started organising their own affairs to suit the people of the Korean peninsula, not the rapacious wants of this or that imperialist power.
Gains were rapidly made.
The same could not be said of the southern half of Korea. When American forces came to bring Korea into its own ‘sphere of interest’ it came armed to the teeth and would brook no question of the Korean people exercising their own will and ordering life to meet the Korean people’s needs. People’s councils which had sprung up over the peninsula were banned and many participants in these early soviets were imprisoned and killed. The abhorrent practice of creating camps to force Korean women into prostitution began under Japanese occupation was continued by the American occupation.
What gains had been made were put to the torch.
When time came for Soviet and US presence to be ended, the Soviets left when asked, while the Americans reordered life in the south to better serve its needs; that of access to an exploitable and cheap workforce, a market for its own goods and a base from which to combat Chinese and Korean communism. Alongside unwanted continued military presence, Washington’s forces rehabilitated Japanese colonisers and Koreans who had served the Japanese occupiers previously and installed them as a police force to put down rebellions, reverse land reforms and break up democratic groupings with no force spared. Many massacres were committed against the Korean people.
This all before war proper broke out.
The focus of this article isn’t on the horrific slaughter inflicted on the Korean people and their allies, chief among them, the Chinese communists, nor is its focus, on the heroic resistance shown in that conflict. The Fatherland Liberation War can’t be encompassed so easily, therefore the attempt won’t be made here.
During that relatively unknown conflict much support, including in the form of the Soviet air force, was given freely. The Airmen themselves wore Korean uniforms in a bid to allow the US administration to ignore the open secret of Soviet support more easily.
After the ceasefire was signed (The DPRK is still at war with the comprador regime installed in the south of Korea) the north of Korea was left with millions dead and practically all housing, infrastructure and means of production destroyed. The Korean people stood up and, honouring the sacrifice of their countrymen and allies, got on with rebuilding their country. Again, China and Russia sent material and experts to aid the Korean people in their struggle to repair the damage and loss.
The Korean people went beyond repair and built a thriving socialist society. Land and factories were socialised, and the building of a planned economy was begun. This building continues to this day even after the weathering of the dissolution of their great ally, the Soviet Union.
This potted history is made to point out the close fraternal bonds that have been forged between the peoples of Russia and Korea.
Military agreement
A recent statement (‘WPK Central Military Commission highly praises combat sub-units of armed forces of DPRK for performing heroic feats in operations to liberate Kursk area of Russian Federation’, KCNA, 28 April 2025) on support in the Kursk region of Russia stated:
“On the basis of the analysis and judgement that the prevailing situation conformed to the invocation of Article 4 of the treaty on comprehensive strategic partnership concluded between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation, Comrade Kim Jong Un decided on our armed forces’ participation in the war, informed the Russian side of it and, in accordance with agreement, issued an order of the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea to combat sub-units of the armed forces of the Republic to annihilate and wipe out the Ukrainian neo-Nazi occupiers and liberate the Kursk area in cooperation with the Russian armed forces.”
And “Kim Jong Un defined it as a sacred mission for further consolidating as firm as a rock the traditional friendship and solidarity between the DPRK and Russia, guaranteeing the development and prosperity of the two countries and defending the honour of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“The military activities of the armed forces of the Republic [DPRK] conducted within the territory of the Russian Federation fully conform to all the provisions and the spirit of the UN Charter and other international laws and the treaty on comprehensive strategic partnership between the DPRK and Russia and serve as a good example and excellent paradigm of the most faithful expression of action to implement them.”
Clearly the presence and role played by DPRK troops on Russian soil is according to international law and the agreements made. Moreover, these two nations have a long history of aiding each other to resist imperialism. So why are the imperialists biting their own fingers off in rage of an admission of an expected, legal and long suspected event?
Anti-imperialist forces grow closer
As Mao Tse Tung wisely said, the US led bloc of imperialists are often “lifting a rock only to drop it on its own feet”. Inflicting wide sanctions on Russia has had the unintended effect (among many!) of removing the major punishment for bypassing the long standing and broad sanctions inflicted on the DPRK, rendering them nearly useless. The increasingly open nature of the US backed proxies’ attacks on Russia have led to open agreements between Russia and Korea.
That these results have happened in the wake of failed attempts by the US and its allies to maintain Western-led imperialist hegemony over the world and its people is obvious to all those who have eyes to see.
One of the few criticisms with some basis levelled at the Korean People’s Army (KPA) by military analysts and think tanks, is that it hasn’t engaged in modern warfare for over a generation. Ignoring that failing to wage war is a ‘criticism’, we can safely say that problem has been rectified. The KPA will make good use of the lessons learned by the armed forces of the Russian Federation and their own recent experience.
The imperialists aren’t in general tearing their hair out over military agreements and militaries working together; the US has a long history of forming coalitions and making agreements (the ‘trustworthiness’ of these are also on record). Moreover, imperialism has a long history of using mercenaries and proxies of many nations, among them ex Nazi Germans, current Nazi Ukrainians, and ‘jihadi’ terrorist death squads, throughout the Middle East and Africa.
So why shouldn’t Russia have allies?
What imperialism is reacting to is the content of these developments, not their form.
The content of Russian/Korean cooperation is one of anti-imperialism. As the conflict in Ukraine is one made through US imperialist aggression, Russia’s defence, now fortified by the DPRK, is one of an anti-imperialist nature. As imperialism flails and thrashes in its death throes, its actions will create more issues for itself and force other anti-imperialist nations like China and Iran into closer cooperation.
Oppressed nations with intentions to throw off the chains of imperialism and those already resisting would do well to learn from the painful lessons gained by Russia and the DPRK and throw their lot in with each other and build a firm bloc of resistance.
All progressive peoples and genuine anti-imperialists across the world should welcome this development and take this understanding to their own respective national-liberation and anti-imperialist movements.