War Business with Russia: A Windfall for North Korea's Dictator
For years, satellite images of North Korea at night showed only a few specks of light. A lack of electricity supply plunged cities across the country into darkness. However, in the six years since April 2020, the illuminated area in central Pyongyang has more than doubled, and its brightness has tripled.
Portal NK Information reported that the increased power supply in major cities is a government achievement. In 2021, dictator Kim Jong Un announced a plan at the 8th Party Congress to build 50,000 new homes in the capital. He has since realised that plan, including in the new Hwasong district, which features two 40-storey apartment blocks shaped like Hwasong intercontinental ballistic missiles.
These high-rise residential complexes are not the only signs of North Korea’s growing prosperity. Foreign travellers familiar with the country report that Pyongyang now appears more modern, with a flood of imported cars, including electric vehicles from China, smartphone apps for QR code payments and taxi bookings, and shopping centres selling Western fashion brands and cosmetics.
In the capital, the regime completed its largest hospital and a greenhouse complex the size of New York’s Central Park. On the east coast, Kim inaugurated the five-kilometre Wonsan-Kalma beach resort in June 2025, capable of accommodating 20,000 guests. The Wall Street Journal in June described North Korea as “the world’s biggest economic success story.”
The communist regime is suspected of financing domestic investment primarily through the massive revenues gained from its support of Russia’s war against Ukraine. According to a March report by South Korea’s Institute for National Security Strategy (INSS), North Korea earned up to US$14.4 billion from ammunition sales to Moscow and the deployment of troops. Bloomberg Economics recently estimated that military support to Russia generated more than US$14 billion for North Korea between 2022 and 2025.
Nearly US$8 billion more came from trade with China, the leasing of North Korean workers abroad, export activities, and cybercrime. In the largest-ever attack on the Bybit platform in February 2025, for instance, hackers suspected to be from North Korea stole Ethereum worth US$1.5 billion. For comparison, North Korea’s gross domestic product the previous year was US$27 billion.
North Korea’s role as a supporter of Russia has added to the Kim dynasty’s political and military influence. Kim also recently pushed for the launch of two 5,000-tonne destroyers. In 15 years of rule, the communist regime in Pyongyang has never had as much influence and money as it does now.
Yet, during the Covid-19 pandemic, the autocrat’s position actually weakened. At the Workers’ Party Congress in early 2021, he tearfully admitted that “almost all sectors of the economy lagged behind expectations.” Five years later, at the next party congress, seven rows of artillery pieces stood in front of the building. Kim cheered that “everything has fundamentally changed.”
The partnership with Russia has lifted North Korea’s status as a pariah in world politics. Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Kim in Pyongyang in June 2024. Chinese leader Xi Jinping arrived in June this year, three months after Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko. In September 2025, Kim stood alongside Xi and Putin at the 80th anniversary celebrations of the end of World War II in Beijing.
It is not yet known whether Russia or North Korea first proposed the idea of using the impoverished nation’s giant ammunition stockpiles for the war in Ukraine. According to Ukrainian estimates, North Korea supplied half of the ammunition Russia needed on the front lines in 2024 and 2025. Additionally, Pyongyang has supplied self-propelled guns, multiple rocket launchers, and ballistic missiles. According to Ukrainian sources, North Korea now plans to send a missile unit consisting of 90 soldiers, six launchers, and up to 120 missiles to Russia to fight against Ukraine.
Between 16,000 and 22,000 North Korean soldiers have already helped Russia push Ukrainian forces back from Kursk province on the border and then clear the area of mines. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Kim now intends to station an additional 30,000 to 50,000 troops in Russia. The business is lucrative: according to the INSS report, Kim receives US$2,800 per month for a soldier, US$3,000 for an officer, and US$6,000 to US$10,000 for each soldier killed.
As in the Soviet era, the reciprocal trade is largely conducted through a barter system. In exchange for ammunition, weapons, and soldiers, Moscow supplies crude oil and petroleum products, grain, and military equipment—from air defence systems to technology for making drones, missiles, and submarines.
However, according to experts, the economic revival is not being felt by the majority of North Koreans. Rising food prices and the depreciation of the won are hitting poor households that lack access to foreign currency. In many families, women now also have to work to maintain their standard of living.
In the spring of 2024, Kim launched a “20x10” regional development programme for areas outside the better-supplied capital, Pyongyang. The programme is suspected to be financed from the regime’s additional revenues. Each year, modern factories are to be built in 20 cities or counties. Over ten years, this would create 200 regional industrial projects. However, the 20x10 project is likely to fail, according to North Korea expert Andrey Lankov.