Correspondence between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin has shot up since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine, according to NK News analysis of state media, but Syrian leader Bashar Assad remained Kim’s most frequent pen pal.

DPRK state media reported that Kim and Putin only exchanged four messages during the entirety of 2021, likely due in part to Pyongyang’s heightened diplomatic isolation during the pandemic, but this increased to seven in 2022 and nine in 2023.