North Korea supplied Russia with more than a million artillery shells for its military operations in Ukraine, and in return Pyongyang received technical advice on its satellites, a South Korean lawmaker said on Wednesday, citing South Korean intelligence services.
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Pyongyang and Moscow, historical allies, are subject to a series of international sanctions, on Russia because of its attack in Ukraine and North Korea because of its nuclear weapons tests.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in September in Russia’s far east, and Washington said last month that Pyongyang had begun supplying weapons to Moscow.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told lawmakers during a closed-door parliamentary review on Wednesday that North Korea has conducted at least ten arms transfers to Russia since August.
“The NIA has learned that more than one million artillery shells were transferred,” Rep. Yoo Sang-bum told reporters after the meeting.
“According to analyses, this should be enough for about two months of war between Russia and Ukraine,” Yu added.
He added that, on the other hand, Pyongyang appears to have received technical advice from Moscow regarding its plan to launch a military reconnaissance satellite.
North Korea recently failed twice to put a military spy satellite into orbit.
After the failure of the second attempt in August, it announced a third launch in October, but this did not materialize.
According to the parliamentarian, “Although the launch date scheduled for October has been postponed, final preparations, such as checking the engine and launch device, are underway.”
In mid-October, Washington claimed that Pyongyang had delivered “more than a thousand containers” of military equipment and munitions to Russia in recent weeks.
Last week, South Korea, Japan and the United States “strongly” condemned the supply of weapons to Moscow, confirming that Pyongyang had already delivered “several” shipments.
