According to a national security adviser to the South Korean president, South Korea had discovered that Russia had supplied missiles and other equipment to strengthen its air defense network of Pyongyang.
Russia has provided air defense missiles to North Korea in exchange for sending its troops to support Russia’s war efforts against Ukraine, a senior South Korean official said Friday.
The United States, South Korea and Ukraine say North Korea sent more than 10,000 troops to Russia in October, some of whom recently began fighting. What Russia would give North Korea in return was unclear at the time.
Shin Wonsik, national security adviser to President Yoon Suk Yeol, told an SBS broadcast on Friday that South Korea had discovered that Russia had supplied missiles and other equipment to strengthen its air defense network of Pyongyangthe capital.
Many observers say North Korea likely feels an urgent need to strengthen its air defense capabilities over the capital after the North last month accused South Korea of dropping propaganda leaflets over Pyongyang. North Korea threatened military action if leaflets were dropped again. The South Korean military has refused to confirm whether or not it was behind the alleged drone flights.
Mr. Shin indicates that Russia also provided economic assistance to North Korea and various military technologiesparticularly those necessary to help the North establish a reliable space surveillance system.
Satellite technologies and lots of oil
At a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin previously said that Moscow was ready to help the North build satellites. North Korea orbited its first spy satellite in November last year, but foreign experts doubt whether the satellite could produce militarily significant images. The North’s attempt to launch a second spy satellite failed in May.
Seoul and Washington have expressed concern about possible Russian transfers of nuclear technologies and sensitive missiles to North Korea. Mr. Shin did not say whether Russia had already transferred such technologies. Many experts have said Russia is unlikely to do so in the initial phase of North Korean troop deployment.
South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers Wednesday that North Korea had recently sent additional artillery systems to Russia. Last month, the National Intelligence Service said North Korea had sent more than 13,000 containers of artillery, missiles and other conventional weapons to Russia since August 2023 to replenish its stockpiles of weapons that are diminishing.
Earlier this week, North Korea and Russia reached a new agreement aimed at expanding economic cooperation following high-level talks held in Pyongyang this week, according to both countries’ state media .
Separately, Russia has supplied North Korea with more than a million barrels of oil since March 2024, BBC News reported, citing the British research center Open Source Centre, which analyzed satellite images for this period.
According to analysis of the images, more than a dozen North Korean tankers made 43 trips between the Russian port of Vostochny and their ports during these eight months. They went to Russia empty and returned loaded.
The first oil shipment documented by the Open Source Center took place on March 7, 2024, seven months after the first reports of munitions shipments from the DPRK to Russia. The last trip documented by researchers took place on November 5.
