North ramping up Russia arms transfers

SEOUL: North Korea has shipped containers that could hold millions of artillery shells to Russia, a top South Korean official said, allowing President Vladimir Putin to maintain his assault on Ukraine as Kyiv’s stocks of ammunition dwindle.

South Korean Defence Minister Shin Wonsik told reporters that North Korea is estimated to have sent about 6,700 containers to Russia, accelerating the pace of shipments since Mr Putin held a summit with Kim Jong-un in September, Yonhap News reported yesterday. The containers could hold about 3 million rounds of 152 mm shells, Mr Shin said.

Russia in return is providing North Korea with food, raw materials and parts used in weapons manufacturing, Mr Shin said. The food aid has helped Mr Kim stabilise prices for necessities, he said, adding if the arms transfers grow, Russia is set to send more military technology to Mr Kim, which could increase Pyongyang’s ability to threaten the region.

As North Korea-Russia trade picks up with the invasion now in its third year, the flow of US military aid to Kyiv has been increasingly under threat. On top of this, the European Union has sent only about 30% of the total 1 million artillery shells it pledged to give Kyiv by March, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this week.

The Ukrainian leader said his country believes North Korea has transferred 1.5 million artillery shells to Russia and an unknown number of missiles, adding that Pyongyang is poised to continue providing weapons.

While North Korea and Russia deny any arms transfers, imagery from commercial satellites has shown about four cargo vessels shuttling between North Korea’s Najin port near the Russian border and the Russian port of Dunay, a former Soviet submarine port about 180 kilometres away. The White House said it has tracked some of those shipments as they travelled by rail across Russia to be stored in depots in Russia near Ukraine.

Cold War partners Russia and North Korea have forged a new partnership since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion, built upon Pyongyang holding some of the world’s largest stocks of munitions that are interoperable with the weapons Moscow has deployed to the battlefield in Ukraine.

North Korea’s yearly economy is about $25 billion (895 billion baht) and the country is in desperate need of food, oil, and hard cash. The weapons bound for Russia are likely worth several billion dollars.