How North Korea’s arms sales to Russia are proof of their strategic and close friendship

The well-known promises of the president of RussiaVladimir Putin, and the leader of North KoreaKim Jong-Un, to increase their cooperation are being translated into an agreement whereby Pyongyang will supply weapons to Moscow and which has provoked an angry response from the United States.

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North Korean artillery shells and rockets are part of the arsenal that the Kremlin will receive, suffocated by international sanctions that have restricted its supply chains on several fronts, forcing Moscow to resort to other isolated states to fully arm itself. war with Ukraine.

On Wednesday the 30th, White House Homeland Security spokesman John Kirby expressed his concern that arms negotiations between Russia and North Korea are advancing “actively.”

He detailed that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had tried during a visit to North Korea in late July to convince Pyongyang to sell artillery ammunition to Russia. He added that even after that appointment, another group of Russian officials had traveled to the North Korean capital after the Defense Minister’s visit.

In early August, the rejection of these agreements led the United States to impose sanctions on three entities that it accused of being linked to arms deals between North Korea and Russia.

According to possible details of the deal disclosed by the United States, Russia would receive munitions that the Army plans to use against Ukraine. The deals could also include raw materials that would help Russia’s defense industrial base.

Kirby said that North Korea delivered rockets and infantry missiles to Russia in 2022 and that Moscow has been trying to acquire additional munitions ever since.

Kim Jong-un attending a military parade to mark a key anniversary of the Korean War with Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. (Photo: AFP) (STR /)

In mid-August, Washington had warned that Russia would violate various UN Security Council resolutions if it reached an arms deal with Korea of the North.

The opposition is not just from Washington. At the United Nations, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield made a statement on behalf of the US, Japan, South Korea and the UK condemning any arms deal between Russia and North Korea.

A necessary supply for Moscow

After Sergei Shoigu’s visit to Pyongyang, Vladimir Putin and kim jong un they exchanged letters in which they pointed to greater bilateral ties.

Kim “emphasized the need to continue the development of strategic and tactical cooperation between the two countries in the field of security and defense,” according to a message. of the North Korean Defense Minister Kang Sun Nam quoted by Russian news agencies.

The pledges for further cooperation came in the context of a summit between the leaders of South Koreathe United States and Japan that was recently held in Washington, with the aim of strengthening their security cooperation in the face of an increasingly threatening Pyongyang.

For the director of the Center for Asian Studies of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Carlos Aquino, the presence of Sergei Shoigu in North Korea on July 26, on the occasion of the celebration of the end of the armistice that ended the war of Korea in 1953 is proof that the alliance between the two countries is serious.

“North Korea held a military parade in which it precisely exhibited missiles, drones, and there was talk that North Korea and Russia were going to strengthen their cooperative relations. On the other hand, we know that the war in Ukraine demands an incredible amount of weapons from both sides and that both sides have problems to supply themselves”he tells El Comercio.

Although Russia is a superpower and traditionally produces far more weapons than Ukraine, the level of combat leaves it faced with a lack of weapons, leading Moscow to turn to its few remaining allies.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (left) in a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok, Russia, in 2019. (Photo: AFP)

“In fact, Russia buys, for example, drones from Iran and it seems that this is one of the weapons that it could also buy from North Korea, along with missiles and also supplies for its guns. In addition, North Korea is desperate to sell, since it is subject to sanctions, it exports almost nothing, so among its sources of financing is the sale of arms ”explains Aquino.

Allies with common enemies

In this context, it is clear that both Russia and North Korea are in the mood to strengthen their relations because they find themselves isolated and on a side with common enemies. Now, their tie is not recent.

Aquino recalls that when the democratic Republic of North Korea was created, the Soviet Union was already a great ally of his and even gave him weapons for the invasion that North Korea made of South Korea in 1950 and later continued to help him financially.

“Now, the collapse of the Soviet Union obviously brought a lot of economic problems to the Soviet Union, to Russia, and aid to North Korea went down and China took that role, but in the last two decades the rapprochement between Pyongyang and Moscow has increased. , in principle because Russia now has more money and especially because it is engaged in a frontal fight against the United States ”points out.

For the expert, the Russian reasoning consists of saying “if the United States creates problems for me in Europe, I create problems for the United States in East Asia.” And North Korea is a destabilizing factor for Washington, but also for Moscow’s other rivals.

“Russia also has increasing problems with Japan, with whom it already clashed before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Given Japan’s strong support for sanctions against Russia, Russia and China are increasingly doing air naval exercises encircling the Japanese island. That is why Russia has a desire to support North Korea because it knows that this creates problems for the United States and Japan.”concludes Aquino.

Source: Elcomercio