North Korea arms shipment to Russia continues

 

North Korean arms shipment to Russia continues with 500K rifles 

Russia's President Vladimir Putin and North Korea's Kim Jong Un attend a meeting at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, Russia, on September 13, 2023 [KCNA via Reuters]

 Bloomberg

                Continuing North Korean fingers shipments to Russia this iciness is allowing Moscow to maintain stress on Ukraine as it faces the risk of dropping vital Western components, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing satellite imagery.

The United States, South Korea, and Japan said in October they had confirmed North Korea changed into presenting Russia with palms and army equipment components for use against Ukraine, adding that Pyongyang changed into in search of Moscow’s military assistance in alternate. Russia and North Korea deny the claims.

Satellite imagery from October-December 2023 appears to expose hundreds of shipping boxes loaded onto and unloaded from Russian ships at North Korea’s Najin and Russia’s Dunay ports, which can be positioned one hundred eighty kilometers aside, in keeping with Bloomberg. The Russian-North Korean exchange has “continued unabatedly despite extra U.S. Sanctions and significant reporting in this interest inside the past few months,” analyst Jaewoo Shin of the Austrian Open Nuclear Network hazard-discount program advised Bloomberg.

Bloomberg stated North Korea holds a number of the arena’s biggest munitions stores, an awful lot of which is interoperable with Russian weapons in Ukraine. Recent deliveries might also include 120mm mortars, 122mm and 152mm artillery shells, and 122mm rockets, in line with struggle analyst Joost Oilemans, who referred to an analysis of frontline substances.“[S]o for all we know that’s every other half million shells,” stated Oilemans, the creator of the open-source intelligence challenge Oryx, which documents navy device losses within the Ukraine battle. South Korean intelligence stated in November that the North had in all likelihood added more than 1 million rounds of artillery to Russia through 10 shipments seeing that August.

 “[North Korean arms shipments] will permit Russia to hold up tons higher strain for longer on Ukrainian forces,” Oilemans added.

Russia and North Korea, which have pledged nearer military cooperation, deny the palms transfers for use within the Ukraine war.

The suggested steady move of deliveries comes as flagging U.S. And European military aid threatens Ukraine’s ability to guard itself against Russia.

 

Russian-North Korean cooperation will likely hold into 2024 due to “symbolic and in large part insufficient” sanctions, stated former CIA Korea analyst Soo Kim, who now works at the U.S. Management consulting company LMI.