North Korea supplies Russia with about 3 million shells a year, which is half of all the ammunition that the Russian army uses in the war in Ukraine, Western intelligence sources told The Times.
According to them, despite the poor quality of ammunition from the DPRK, their total quantity allowed Russian troops to satisfy their “shell hunger” and achieve successes at the front, such as the capture of Ugledar.
The head of Ukrainian intelligence, Kirill Budanov, said that the supply of shells from the DPRK tips the scales in Russia’s favor. “Our biggest problem of all these Russian allies is North Korea. Because with the volume of military products that they supply, they actually influence the intensity of hostilities,” he said.
At the end of June, The Washington Post wrote that North Korea supplied Russia with about 1.6 million artillery shells from August last year to January 2024. The publication cited such data with reference to a study by the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS) and sources in a Russian transport company.
Between August and January, 74,000 metric tons of explosives were delivered from two ports in the Far East to 16 settlements on the border with Ukraine, which corresponds to the weight of 1.6 million artillery shells of the type that Russia used in the war. According to C4ADS, these goods were labeled as ammunition, although in the documentation they were listed as explosives. According to the publication's analysis, it was during this period that Russian cargo ships sailed between the Far East and the DPRK.
Cooperation between the two countries, which began against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, received a new impetus after Kim Jong-un's visit to Russia in September 2023 and strengthened in the summer of 2024, when Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Pyongyang for the first time in 24 years. On June 19, the heads of state signed a strategic partnership agreement, which de facto implies a military alliance. According to the document, Russia and North Korea will provide assistance to each other in the event of aggression against one of the countries.
Summing up the visit, Putin for the first time publicly admitted the possibility of military-technical cooperation with the DPRK, although it is prohibited by UN Security Council sanctions, previously supported by Moscow. South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik claimed that Russia is already supplying Pyongyang with tanks, aircraft, and technology for creating spy satellites. The United States noted that, in addition to this, Kim expects to receive long-range nuclear missile technology from Putin.
According to them, despite the poor quality of ammunition from the DPRK, their total quantity allowed Russian troops to satisfy their “shell hunger” and achieve successes at the front, such as the capture of Ugledar.
The head of Ukrainian intelligence, Kirill Budanov, said that the supply of shells from the DPRK tips the scales in Russia’s favor. “Our biggest problem of all these Russian allies is North Korea. Because with the volume of military products that they supply, they actually influence the intensity of hostilities,” he said.
At the end of June, The Washington Post wrote that North Korea supplied Russia with about 1.6 million artillery shells from August last year to January 2024. The publication cited such data with reference to a study by the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS) and sources in a Russian transport company.
Between August and January, 74,000 metric tons of explosives were delivered from two ports in the Far East to 16 settlements on the border with Ukraine, which corresponds to the weight of 1.6 million artillery shells of the type that Russia used in the war. According to C4ADS, these goods were labeled as ammunition, although in the documentation they were listed as explosives. According to the publication's analysis, it was during this period that Russian cargo ships sailed between the Far East and the DPRK.
Cooperation between the two countries, which began against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, received a new impetus after Kim Jong-un's visit to Russia in September 2023 and strengthened in the summer of 2024, when Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Pyongyang for the first time in 24 years. On June 19, the heads of state signed a strategic partnership agreement, which de facto implies a military alliance. According to the document, Russia and North Korea will provide assistance to each other in the event of aggression against one of the countries.
Summing up the visit, Putin for the first time publicly admitted the possibility of military-technical cooperation with the DPRK, although it is prohibited by UN Security Council sanctions, previously supported by Moscow. South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik claimed that Russia is already supplying Pyongyang with tanks, aircraft, and technology for creating spy satellites. The United States noted that, in addition to this, Kim expects to receive long-range nuclear missile technology from Putin.
