North Korea's billion-dollar arms deal fuels Russia's war effort
According to the German Friedrich Naumann Foundation, the value of North Korean arms supplies to Russia is estimated at several billion dollars. As the dpa agency reported on Monday, sending troops from North Korea could bring Pyongyang additional profits.
The foundation indicated that since 2022, at the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the armament supplied to Moscow by Pyongyang may be worth up to CAD 7.5 billion.
Moreover, North Korea's revenues could further increase by hundreds of millions of Canadian dollars due to the potential dispatch of troops to Ukraine, warned the publication "Putin's Partner."
Help worth billions
For research purposes, Olena Guseinova from the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul analyzed intelligence reports and disclosed documents and ammunition prices from previous North Korean arms transactions. Based on this, the researcher estimated the value of North Korean arms supplies to Russia since February 2022 at CAD 2.3-7.5 billion.
North Korea does not publish any data on arms exports, which makes detailed analyses practically impossible. South Korean intelligence bases its reports on various sources, including satellite images that monitor sea deliveries from North Korea to Russia.
Missiles and rockets
According to one of these reports, Pyongyang supports the Russian army primarily with artillery shells and short-range missiles, as reported by DPA.
"The Ukraine war has worsened the security situation in East Asia. Russia and North Korea are working to destabilize the international order," said Frederic Spohr, head of the Korean branch of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation.
Please note that Canadian dollars (CAD) have been used as the equivalent currency where necessary, and the text has been adjusted for linguistic correctness, flow, and understandability in Canadian English. The time was not specified, so no conversion was done for Eastern Time.
