Donald Trump says he has a “very good relationship” with Kim Jong Un, but the uncomfortable reality is that Kim’s most important relationship today appears to be with Vladimir Putin.
And the timing of Trump’s latest intervention should concern both Europe and America’s allies in Asia.
Trump has ordered the Pentagon to substantially reduce US participation in joint military exercises with South Korea, arguing that the exercises are expensive and send an unnecessarily “hostile” signal towards North Korea.
Except this isn’t 2019 anymore.
North Korea is no longer simply sitting on the Korean Peninsula firing missiles into the sea. It is becoming increasingly embedded in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Trump has chosen North Korea over long serving allies to the US 🇺🇸
This has to stop.
— Shaun Pinner (@ShaunPinnerUA) August 17, 2026
North Korean troops have already fought alongside Russian forces, its ammunition has helped sustain Russia’s war effort, and KN-23 ballistic missiles are now being used against Ukrainian cities.
During attacks this month, North Korean weaponry has again reportedly appeared among the ballistic missiles launched towards Ukraine, including during strikes targeting Kyiv and other cities.
This is no longer an occasional appearance of North Korean ammunition on the battlefield. Pyongyang is becoming part of Russia’s strike capability.
And missiles are only part of the equation.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that as many as 50,000 additional North Korean troops could potentially be deployed to Russia, on top of roughly 14,000 already sent to support Russian operations.
To put that into perspective, Britain’s entire full-time trade-trained Army stands at around 70,000 personnel.
We are potentially talking about a North Korean contingent approaching three-quarters the size of the trained British Army.
This is not some collection of poorly trained foreign recruits being thrown into Russian units.
It is the military of a sovereign state increasingly integrating its manpower, missiles and weapons into Russia’s war machine — while gaining invaluable experience of modern warfare in the process.
Earlier this month, Reuters reported an even more significant development.
According to Ukrainian military intelligence, a North Korean ballistic missile unit has begun deploying to western Russia.
The reported deployment involves approximately 90 North Korean personnel, potentially operating six launchers with as many as 120 ballistic missiles from Russia’s Voronezh region.
A source familiar with the matter also told Reuters that the United States was aware of the deployment.
That matters.
We could be moving beyond Russia simply purchasing North Korean missiles and firing them at Ukraine. North Korean military personnel themselves could now be deploying alongside those weapons into western Russia.
Yet at precisely the moment North Korea is increasing its military involvement in Russia’s war, Trump is reducing military pressure on Pyongyang because he does not want to appear “hostile”.
It is difficult to imagine a clearer example of rewarding escalation.
There is nothing inherently wrong with diplomacy. Talking to adversaries is sometimes necessary and negotiations can prevent wars, reduce tensions and free prisoners.
But diplomacy without consequences for escalation can quickly become appeasement.
There is another uncomfortable question here for Europe.
Where is the political outrage?
North Korean ballistic missiles are being fired into a European country, while North Korean troops are gaining combat experience alongside the Russian military.
Imagine reversing the situation.
If tens of thousands of South Korean troops deployed to Ukraine and South Korean missile units began operating weapons against Russian cities, Moscow would immediately describe South Korea as a direct participant in the war.
And it would have a point.
North Korea’s involvement can no longer simply be treated as another foreign arms shipment.
Nor is this only Ukraine’s problem.
Every North Korean missile fired in Ukraine provides real-world combat data. Every artillery unit exposed to Ukrainian counter-battery warfare gains experience. Every soldier who returns home can carry lessons learned from drone warfare, electronic warfare, battlefield communications and modern command procedures.
Ukraine is effectively providing North Korea with something Pyongyang cannot replicate on a training ground: experience of high-intensity modern warfare against a Western-equipped military.
Those lessons will eventually return to the Korean Peninsula.
Which makes Washington’s decision even more extraordinary.
At precisely the moment North Korea is gaining unprecedented battlefield experience alongside Russia, the United States is reducing exercises designed to ensure American and South Korean forces remain prepared to confront that very same military.
Trump says he does not want America to send Kim Jong Un the wrong signal.
I would argue he already has.
North Korea can supply Putin with troops and ballistic missiles, deepen military cooperation with Moscow and gain combat experience from Europe’s largest war since 1945, while Washington worries about offending Kim.
That is exactly the wrong message.
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