Fears of a North Korean military axis with authoritarian states like China, Russia and Iran are “overstated” despite Pyongyang’s military support for the war against Ukraine, according to a 2025 study on global arms proliferation, which also estimated that the DPRK’s nuclear arsenal remained around the same size as last year amid a new global arms race.

In its 2025 yearbook released on Monday, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) documents how North Korea sent up to 12,000 troops to fight on Russia’s side against Ukraine from last October, emphasizing that “the deployment could further escalate and globalize the conflict.”