North Korea’s Massive Arms Deals with Russia Threaten South Korea: Report

Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (right) visit the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Amur region. on Sept. 13, 2023. Vladimir Smirnov/AFP via Getty Images

North Korea is beginning to supply massive amounts of munitions to Russia. The resources from such a deal will enable the communist power to threaten South Korea more acutely.

Moscow has received more than 1,000 containers of munitions from Pyongyang in the last month, the White House announced last week.

Now, new satellite photos reveal what appears to be the beginning of a gargantuan transfer of arms that will leave Russia empowered and North Korea flush with resources for the first time in years.

“The sale of such quantities of munitions will fill the coffers of the cash-strapped regime in Pyongyang, which has traditionally used the proceeds of arms deliveries to develop its own nuclear and ballistic missile programme in violation of UN sanctions,” said an Oct. 16 report by the Royal United Services Institute, a UK-based think tank

“As a result, North Korea’s agreements with Moscow will also cause significant alarm in Japan and South Korea, countries already on the sharp end of Pyongyang’s ongoing provocations.”

Russian Arms Deals Offer Windfall for North Korea

From Sept. 7 to Oct. 1, Pyongyang sent more than 1,000 containers of arms and munitions to Russia via ship and rail.

The vessels involved in the operation have a long history of supplying Russian arms in violation against international sanctions, and previously delivered arms to China, Iraq, and Syria.

The containers were ultimately delivered to a Russian munitions depot about 180 miles from the border with Ukraine, where Russia launched a new offensive.

How long the deliveries will continue, and in what quantities, remains an open question. North Korea has spent five decades preparing for a resumption of hostilities with South Korea following the 1953 armistice of the Korean War.

That means the small power could flood Ukraine with ammunition for small arms and artillery.

“Having prepared for a massive conventional war with South Korea for decades, North Korea’s supplying of significant quantities of munitions to Moscow will have profound consequences for the war in Ukraine,” the RUSI report says.

“Moreover, in addition to the pecuniary benefits, North Korea may seek other assistance from Russia in return for its support, including the provision of missile and other advanced military technologies.”

South Korea in the Crosshairs

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has long threatened the destruction of South Korea, Japan, and the United States.

Moreover, experts have expressed increasing concern that should the United States be pressed with a major war over the Taiwan Strait, North Korea could use the opportunity to launch a cataclysmic war on South Korea.

Indeed, it appears the regime is preparing for just such an eventuality.

North Korea conducted war games in August which simulated a “scorched earth” strategy against South Korea, including the use of multiple preemptive nuclear strikes and a subsequent occupation of the south.

The statement said that the missiles carried out their simulated strikes through air bursts, suggesting it confirmed the explosions of dummy warheads at a set altitude.

In the event of a real war, the high-altitude detonation of a nuclear warhead could cause catastrophic damage both through the initial blast as well as its related electromagnetic burst.

South Korean and Japanese assessments of the missile tests suggest that the two tactical missiles traveled close to 250 miles at a maximum altitude of 30 miles high before landing in the waters between Korea and Japan.