In the fall of 2022, satellite images, transmitted by South Korea, of the border area between Russia and Korea, showed abnormally long railway convoys, for a country supposedly under severe sanctions by the United Nations.
Even more surprising was the direction in which the convoy was traveling, from south to north, that is, from North Korea, towards Russia. Quickly, the hypothesis of Pyongyang sending ammunition and military material to support the Russian war effort in Ukraine.
This support of the North Korean regime for its new Russian friend is now beyond doubt, whether it involves 152 mm artillery shells for the 2S3 and 2S19 Msta-S, and 122 mm, 200 and 300 mm rockets for the Grad, Smerch and Tornado. systems. More recently, it even appeared that the Russian armies were making massive use of Hwasong-11 or KN-02 ballistic missiles, an unlicensed copy of the Soviet Toshka short-range ballistic missile, and Hwasong-11Ga or KN-23, close to the missile. Iskander.
While Vladimir Putin has completed a historic visit to Pyongyang, South Korea is now concerned about the price Moscow has agreed to pay for this decisive support in ammunition, but also in manpower, and threatens massive arms transfers to Ukraine, if Russia did it. to develop North Korean military or military-industrial tools.
Ammunition and manpower support provided by North Korea to the war effort will not be exempt from compensation.
The fact is that, according to South Korean intelligence services, Pyonguang had, at the beginning of the year, sent a total of 6 containers of ammunition to Russia since the beginning of the conflict, a massive support that far exceeds, for example, the aid provided by Iran to its Russian ally in this conflict.
The UN, for its part, estimates the number of containers, today, between 10 and 12, or 000 million projectiles and rockets; the two estimates, six months apart, are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
In addition to munitions, North Korea also reportedly agreed to supply labor to Russia, whether in the agricultural, construction, and, to a lesser extent, industrial sectors, to offset war mobilizations and the requisitions that are beginning to weigh heavily on the Russian productive and economic apparatus. The figures in this regard, however, vary greatly depending on the sources.
Obviously, such support cannot be provided without compensation, especially for a country whose nominal GDP is capped at 30 billion euros for 26 million inhabitants. In fact, the 5 million projectiles and rockets sent to Russia so far represent, alone, between 5 and 10% of the country’s annual GDP.
The question is, therefore, knowing what Vladimir Putin promised Kim Jong-Un in exchange for this massive support, which is undoubtedly proving essential in the evolution of the balance of power in recent months in Korea.
If on the international scene there are reports of Russian food and medical aid to North Korea, Russia also has capabilities that are cruelly lacking today in the North Korean defense industry and, therefore, in the North Korean armies. totally focused on a possible confrontation with its southern neighbor and its American ally.
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