Short answer: No. Kim Jong Un and North Korea do not support Israel. Pyongyang has no diplomatic relations with Israel, recognizes Palestinian sovereignty over the territory, and Kim was reported in December 2025 to have called Israel a "terror project" of the United States. North Korean-made weapons have also turned up in Hamas's arsenal, supplied through North Korea's alliance with Iran, though Pyongyang denies direct involvement. (As of August 2026.)
What Kim Jong Un has actually said and done
1988: North Korea formally recognized the State of Palestine and has never established diplomatic relations with Israel, treating Israeli-controlled territory as under Palestinian sovereignty in its official position, according to the North Korean and Israeli government records compiled by Wikipedia's Israel-North Korea relations page.
October 7, 2023: Hamas's attack on Israel included North Korean-made F-7 rocket-propelled grenades, according to Israeli military findings reported by Radio Free Asia. North Korean state media blamed the United States for the resulting conflict rather than criticizing Hamas, a pattern also documented in a CSIS analysis of the DPRK-Hamas relationship.
October 13, 2023: North Korean state media carried a statement from an international-affairs commentator denying that North Korean weapons were used by Hamas and calling the accusation a U.S. "malicious slander campaign," Radio Free Asia reported.
January 8, 2024: South Korea's National Intelligence Service formally verified that Hamas used North Korean-origin munitions against Israel, releasing photographic evidence of a North Korean F-7 RPG recovered from the fighting, according to Air & Space Forces Magazine, corroborated by the CSIS analysis cited above.
December 2025: Ynetnews reported, citing North Korean state media, that Kim denounced Israel as a "terror project" backed by the United States that functions as an instrument of U.S. power rather than a legitimate country. The quote circulated widely afterward, but we could not locate it in a KCNA release or in wire coverage, so treat it as reported rather than confirmed.
Context: why North Korea sits where it does
North Korea has never recognized Israel as a state. Pyongyang built ties with the Palestine Liberation Organization back in the 1960s, trained Palestinian militant groups over the following decades, and formally recognized the State of Palestine in 1988. There is no record of Kim Jong Un visiting Israel, meeting Israeli officials, donating to any Israeli or Jewish cause, or having any personal connection to Jewish identity. He has never appeared at a pro-Israel event, and North Korea has never joined or been invited to join any Israel-related boycott campaign; if anything, the traffic runs the other way, with Pyongyang refusing recognition and voicing open hostility.
The clearest concrete link between North Korea and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is military, not rhetorical. North Korean-made weapons, delivered to Hamas through North Korea's long-standing arms relationship with Iran, were used in the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, a fact North Korea denies but that South Korean intelligence and Western analysts have verified. In December 2025, Israeli media reported a direct personal statement from Kim calling Israel a "terror project" of the United States, the most explicit anti-Israel remark attributed to him individually, though the underlying North Korean release could not be located. Kim remains alive and active; he opened North Korea's Ninth Workers' Party Congress in February 2026 and made a reported 92 public appearances in the first half of 2026, though state media has gone quiet on his whereabouts for stretches since.
The bottom line
Kim Jong Un does not support Israel. North Korea has no diplomatic relations with Israel, recognizes Palestinian sovereignty over the territory, has supplied weapons that reached Hamas through Iran, and Kim was reported to have called Israel a "terror project" of the United States. Nothing in the public record shows support, donations, event appearances, or any Jewish-identity connection. The record runs entirely the other way.
Wear your answer
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Last updated August 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.
