After a meeting in the Far East on September 13, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said that he and Vladimir Putin had reached a “satisfactory agreement” on “urgent issues of cooperation”. However, the parties will probably never make any official statements regarding the agreements if they relate to the supply of weapons, in particular shells, writes The New York Times.
— If any specific arms supply agreement has been concluded, neither Moscow nor Pyongyang is expected to announce it. Buying weapons from North Korea or providing assistance for its weapons programs is a violation of UN Security Council resolutions for which Russia itself voted, — is explained in the publication.
In addition, as the publication notes, 70 years ago the United States and the Russian Federation filled the Korean Peninsula with weapons, and now, when history has turned upside down, the flow of these weapons may reverse.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller described the meeting as one in which Putin “begs Kim Jong-un for help”, however, not only the Russian Federation turned to the Korean Peninsula for help, NYT notes.
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— Under agreements quietly negotiated with Washington, South Korea has been supplying the United States with large quantities of artillery shells for months. It insists it does not supply any lethal weapons directly to Ukraine. But its deliveries to the US military help free up US stockpiles that Ukraine can use in the fight against Russia,— the article says.
However, there is still no evidence that shells made in South Korea were used in Ukraine, nor that Russia used North Korean weapons and ammunition, while US officials have repeatedly warned that North Korea supplies artillery shells and missiles to Russia.
— Arms agreements between Kim and Putin could encourage “hawks” in South Korea to call for weapons to be sent directly to Ukraine. This is another reason why Moscow and Pyongyang will likely refrain from publicizing such agreements. But North Korea has what Putinis looking for, — concludes NYT.
According to experts, North Korea can store tens of millions of artillery shells in warehouses and has up to 10 thousand 100 mm guns. This is more than in all NATO countries.
The DPRK also has 100 ammunition factories, each employing more than 10 thousand workers.
