North Korea provided Russia with more than a million artillery shells for its military operations in Ukraine and, in exchange, Pyongyang received technical advice for its satellites, a South Korean lawmaker said Wednesday. citing Seoul’s intelligence services. Pyongyang and Moscow, two historic allies, are subject to a series of international sanctions, Russia because of its offensive in Ukraine and North Korea for its nuclear weapons tests.
“Enough for about two months of war in Ukraine”
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in September in the Russian Far East and Washington said last month that Pyongyang had started supplying weapons to Moscow. South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) told lawmakers during a closed-door parliamentary audit on Wednesday that North Korea had made at least ten arms transfers to Russia since august.
“The NIS has learned that more than 1 million artillery shells have been transferred,” MP Yoo Sang-bum told reporters after the meeting. “According to analyses, this should be enough for about two months of war between Russia and Ukraine,” Yoo Sang-bum added. In return, Pyongyang appears to have received technical advice from Moscow for its plan to launch a military reconnaissance satellite, he said.
Arms supply widely condemned in Asia
North Korea recently failed twice to put a military spy satellite into orbit. After the failure of a second attempt in August, it announced a third launch in October but this did not materialize. According to the parliamentarian, “although the October launch date has been postponed, final preparations, such as inspections of the engine and launch device, are in full swing.”
In mid-October, Washington said that Pyongyang had delivered “more than a thousand containers” of military equipment and ammunition to Russia in recent weeks. Last week, South Korea, Japan and the United States “strongly condemned” the supply of weapons to Moscow, assuring that “several” deliveries had already been made by Pyongyang.