North Korea’s Kim Welcomes 2026 With a Salute to Russia

In a New Year’s speech, the leader celebrates an alliance that has bolstered his regime.

SEOUL—North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ushered in 2026 by hailing an “invincible alliance” with Russia and saluting his troops deployed to Russian battlefields—invoking a partnership that has fueled his growing defiance and confidence on the global stage.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at a New Year’s Day event in Pyongyang.

In a New Year’s address delivered in Pyongyang, Kim called 2025 an unforgettable year in which he believed in nothing but the “people’s patriotism and loyalty,” according to a transcript published by North Korean state media.

Kim was looking back on a year during which the alliance with Moscow provided him with an economic lifeline and a battlefield testing ground, as Pyongyang sent roughly 15,000 troops to fight alongside Russia in its Ukraine war.

In a separate message, Kim praised his troops for their “remarkable feats” overseas. “Thanks to your self-sacrificing and devoted struggle, the militant fraternity and friendship and invincible alliance between our country and Russia grow firmer,” he said, according to state media.

Kim made no mention of policy toward the U.S. in his New Year’s speech, after a year in which President Trump suggested he would like to meet again with Kim, calling North Korea “sort of a nuclear power.”

Pyongyang has refused to engage in dialogue since the two last met in 2019, instead focusing on building up its weapons program and moving to cement its nuclear status, leveraging a period of close alignment with Moscow.

In his speech, Kim largely focused on domestic achievements in construction projects and agricultural harvest as he looked back on the year. He spent the final weeks of 2025 visiting factories and a new hospital, vowing to improve living standards for his people.

But he didn’t become lax about the military buildup. In December, Kim inspected a nuclear-powered submarine, oversaw missile-launch drills and called for a modernized weapons industry.

In 2025 Kim ordered the mass production of munitions, as North Korea exports missiles and artillery shells to Russia, while unveiling his largest-ever warship and newest intercontinental ballistic missile.

The conflict in Ukraine has served as a testing ground for the Kim regime, identifying a need to modernize its aging Soviet-era military equipment. In September, Kim hinted that upgrading conventional capabilities would be a priority for 2026 and beyond.

North Korea and Russia demonstrated increased military and economic cooperation in 2025, as Kim deployed troops and military engineers to support the war in Ukraine—and held a ceremony for some North Korean soldiers who died on the battlefield and returned to Pyongyang in coffins.

Kim and Russian leader Vladimir Putin exchanged New Year’s messages in December looking back on their military partnership. Putin said 2025 proved the “invincible friendship” between the two countries while Kim said their alliance would endure “generation after generation.”

Pyongyang has traded munitions and troops for Moscow’s technical and financial assistance, which could help revitalize a defense industry hampered by global sanctions. Kim is expected to lay out his foreign-policy and military goals for the next five years at a Workers’ Party Congress early in 2026.

Write to Dasl Yoon at dasl.yoon@wsj.com