North Korea Unveils First ‘Nuclear-Powered’ Sub As Kim Tells Putin Their Nations Are “Sharing Blood, Life & Death In Same Trench”

One big geopolitical trend of the last year and beyond connected with the Ukraine war has been just how open North Korea and Russia have been about their deepening defense relations.

At the start, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un taking the high risk and controversial step of sending thousands of his DPRK troops to assist Russia was initially kept a secret, with little details made public.

Soon, international press reported at least 10,000 North Korean troops helping Russia, mostly in the Kursk border area.

But the last year saw North Korea go so far as to publish footage of North Koreans coming home from the Ukraine war in flag-draped coffins.

Kim Jong Un said Saturday that his country and Russia had bonded through “blood, life and death” during the war in Ukraine, as he delivered New Year’s greetings to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In his message released by the state-run KCNA news agency, Kim described 2025 as a “really meaningful year” for the partnership between the two countries, saying their alliance had been strengthened by “sharing blood, life and death in the same trench.”

It was only last April that North Korea publicly acknowledged for the first time it had deployed troops to assist Russia’s military operations in Ukraine and confirmed that some of its soldiers had died in combat. However, this had been an ‘open secret’ for much of the year even prior to that.

Earlier this month, Pyongyang also admitted it had sent personnel to remove land mines in Russia’s Kursk region in August 2025. Kim said at least nine members of an engineering regiment were killed during the 120-day mission, speaking at a Dec. 12 ceremony marking the unit’s return home.

Putin too has praised the North Korean soldiers for being especially instrumental in pushing back the short-lived Ukrainian occupation of southern Kurks oblast, in a brazen cross-border operation which lasted for months.

Kim’s New Year’s message to Putin came a day after he ordered officials to ramp up missile production. The world can expect more provocative missile tests from Pyongyang this year.

Putin’s travel in 2025 focused on non-Western and BRICS and non-aligned countries, some of which the West would call ‘rogue states’. But it also crucially included the Alaska Summit with President Donald Trump – the single biggest and most surprising trip since the Ukraine war’s start…

Hands Russian President Putin shook in 2025

This year saw truly historic meetings between Putin and global leaders, including:

Donald Trump

Xi Jinping

Kim Jong-un

Narendra Modi

Masoud Pezeshkian

…and many more. Watch to find out! pic.twitter.com/bRLgFogyiC

— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) December 26, 2025

In addition to troop deployments, North Korea has also supplied Russia with artillery shells, missiles, and long-range rocket systems. Moscow has in turn provided its growing ally with with financial support, military technology, and supplies of food and energy.

Additionally, CNN reports that North Korea released images of what it claims is its first nuclear-powered submarine, which is designed as a challenge to American naval dominance in the region.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Dec. 25 showed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in the company of senior officials and his daughter, inspecting the new vessel, which was first revealed in March at an indoor construction facility.

Kim first discussed building a nuclear-powered submarine as part of a five-year military expansion plan at a party conference in 2021, and called the construction of the vessel one of the cornerstones of his regime’s defense policy.

“We regard the super-powerful offensive capability as the best shield for national security in developing the armed forces,” Kim was recorded as saying.

The North Korean dictator also listed several high-priority weapons systems at the conference, including solid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missiles carrying multiple warheads, hypersonic weapons, two new guided-missile destroyers, and advanced spy satellites.

Kim called the naval construction program, while inspecting the new sub, “a leap forward in bolstering up the combat capabilities of our fleets,” according to KCNA.

However, as PJMedia.com’s Bryan Jung notes, one of the new destroyers capsized on launch earlier this year, to Pyongyang’s embarrassment, but was subsequently refloated and repaired.