Satellite Images Show North Korea Boosting Arms Flow to Russia

In turn, Pyongyang is already receiving much-needed cash and oil from Russia. Western officials worry North Korea could also ask for sensitive nuclear technology and material support from Russia in case of a war on the Korean Peninsula. 

The deepening alliance between Russia and North Korea is alarming to the U.S. and its allies, making both countries more dangerous to their neighbors and more difficult to contain.

Millions of artillery shells from Pyongyang have allowed Russia to fill an ammunition deficit caused by almost three years of intense fighting. North Korean rockets are bombarding Ukrainian cities while Russia’s own missile production has been hobbled by Western sanctions. Military hardware, including multiple launch rocket systems, is flowing into Russia by train, with railroad traffic through the countries’ border reaching record highs.

Andriy Kovalenko, a Ukrainian army officer heading a government unit tasked with countering Russian disinformation, said 60% of the artillery and mortar shells used by Russia in Ukraine now come from Pyongyang. “North Korean ammunition is holding the Russian defenses,” he said.

North Korea’s missiles now make up nearly a third of Russia’s ballistic missile launches at Ukraine this year, according to Ukrainian officials.

Manpower has further helped Russia swing the balance. The roughly 12,000 soldiers dispatched from North Korea are now engaged in active combat, U.S. officials said on Monday. More than 100 have been killed and around a thousand injured in combat against Ukrainian units occupying parts of Russia’s Kursk region, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers in a closed-door meeting on Thursday.

North Korea has shipped some 20,000 containers of munitions to Russia, according to Washington and Seoul officials, ranging from lower-quality ammunition such as 122 mm and 152 mm artillery shells to its newer Hwasong-11 class ballistic missiles. Ukrainian officials say the provision has amounted to more than five million artillery shells and dozens of rockets, including more than 100 Hwasong-11 class missiles.

“They can be imprecise, but the range is impressive,” a senior Ukrainian intelligence official said of the North Korean missiles provided to Russia. “It’s a threat to our cities.”

More recently, Pyongyang has sent 170 mm self-propelled howitzers and 240 mm long-range multiple rocket launchers.

The artillery shells initially supplied by North Korea were decades-old, raising suspicions that the Kim regime was dumping its old ammunition. But now, Pyongyang is supplying newer munitions. For instance, the 240 mm multiple rocket launchers sent to Russia were recently equipped with new guidance and control systems.

Similarly, North Korea’s largest 600 mm rocket launchers, or KN-25, were upgraded earlier this year with the support of Russian technicians, according to SI Analytics, a satellite imagery firm. The weapon, first tested in 2019, blurs the distinction between a multiple launch rocket system and a short-range ballistic missile.

More weapons are coming, by ship and train, to resupply Russian troops burning through huge quantities of arms, U.S. and South Korean officials say. Around 200 munitions factories in North Korea are operating at full capacity to produce weapons, and Russia is transferring fuel and equipment to support Pyongyang’s arms manufacturing, Seoul officials said. 

A missile manufacturing complex producing the North Korean short-range ballistic missiles fired at Ukraine is expanding as well, according to satellite imagery. North Korea’s Hwasong-11 class missiles, dubbed KN-23 and KN-24 in the West, are produced at a plant on North Korea’s eastern coast. New construction appeared to be progressing rapidly, including a new building apparently aimed at concealing loading operations of the factory, SI Analytics said. Kim has visited the factory several times, during which he ordered the mass production of tactical missiles. 

North Korean factories are capable of producing new Hwasong missiles in just months, said Damien Spleeters, the director of expeditionary operations at Conflict Armament Research. “The North Korean missiles are being made on demand,” he said.

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