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This is a golden moment for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (and his family). Two years of military engagement alongside Russia have netted North Korea $14.4 billion.
The Pyongyang Marshal's earnings were calculated by the Institute for National Security Strategy in Seoul, processing intelligence data on North Korea's ammunition supplies.
The bulk of the revenue came from shipments of artillery parts, ammunition and missiles: estimated to be worth between $7 and $13 billion. Studying satellite photos focused on the North Korean port of Rason allowed INSS analysts to count 112 trips by Russian ships between August 2023 and December 2025, transporting 30,000 containers loaded with 8-11 million shells and missiles.
The estimate is “conservative” compared to South Korean intelligence, which estimated that Pyongyang’s shipments had reached 15 million. Battlefield surveys conducted by the Ukrainian military and Western observers have found that at the height of the conflict, in the spring of 2025, one in two shells fired by the Russians on the Kursk front was manufactured in North Korea. The remains of about a hundred ballistic missiles were also found on the ground.
The South Korean report notes that a significant portion of the transaction was conducted by Moscow not in cash but in goods: in particular, the Russians sent oil, food supplies and missile technology worth up to $1.5 billion. This was an invaluable trade for North Korea, which officially remains subject to a regime of international sanctions imposed by the UN, but which, in a destabilized world, Russia and China no longer respect.
According to an investigation conducted by an 11-nation UN team monitoring embargo violations, Pyongyang received the Pantsir anti-aircraft missile system from Russia, designed to “shoot down aircraft and helicopters, cruise missiles, smart munitions and drones.” It has several versions, one mounted on trucks and one for ships.
The soldiers sent by Kim under the "mutual assistance in case of aggression" pact signed with Putin in 2024 were apparently paid for their services in cash.
The North Korean contingent fought against Ukrainians in the Russian region of Kursk, which had been occupied by Kiev forces. The INSS report estimates that the number of men from the North Korean “legion” who participated in the expedition alongside the Russians from autumn 2024 to December 2025 was 21,000. They paid a high price: 6,000 soldiers were wounded, of whom perhaps 2,000 died.
The salaries of the North Korean army on the war front were $620 million: $2,800 per month for each soldier, $3,000 for non-commissioned officers, and $5,000 for senior officers. The pay for the fallen ranged between $6,000 and $10,000 per person.
It is quite possible that a large portion of the pay was collected by the Pyongyang government: it is standard practice for sending the workforce abroad. The families of the fallen may have received a larger share of the bonus, to avoid creating resentment on the home front. Kim Jong-un publicly wept for heroes; he hugged the wounded returning from the front; in August 2025, state media revealed a list of 205 soldiers killed in the war, whose photos were displayed at a cemetery visited by Xi.
On March 16, the Marshal inspected the construction of a cemetery and museum in Pyongyang in honor of the Kursk fighters. Photos published by the North Korean press show Kim in front of a row of tombstones and two large black marble slabs engraved with the names of soldiers killed in the battle against the Ukrainians. NK News analysts, enlarging the images, counted 332 names, but noted that there was room for 2,000.
This number coincides with casualty estimates presented by South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence, but it is possible that the regime also includes the names of the wounded or soldiers who distinguished themselves in the operation and returned home alive.
After the impressive economic revenue figures ($14 billion is a lot for a country with an estimated gross domestic product of $26 billion in 2024), and after the grief of families for “heroic soldiers fallen on overseas missions,” the golden moment of Kim Jong-un and his family is also political.
Last September, the Marshal had a day of glory when he attended the Beijing Military Parade alongside Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. That day, he brought his daughter Ju Ae with him, making her debut on an international mission and introducing her to the leadership. It has often been rumored that the girl will be the next leader of North Korea./ Corriere della Sera
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