North Korea sends 1m artillery rounds to Russia, enough for 2 months in Ukraine -Bloomberg
North Korea transferred more than a million artillery rounds to Russia, South Korea's intelligence service announced at a closed briefing for parliamentarians, Bloomberg reports.
As Yoo Sang-bum, a member of the parliamentary intelligence committee present at the briefing, told reporters, the National Intelligence Service believes that Pyongyang has already handed over 1 million artillery rounds to the Russian Federation, which Moscow intends to use in Ukraine. Since August, there have been about 10 arms deliveries from North Korea to Russia.
According to the spy agency, the transferred number of rounds to the Russian army will suffice for approximately two months of artillery shelling.
North Korea has also sent munitions advisers to Russia, according to South Korean intelligence.
At the end of July 2023, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited Pyongyang where he met with his colleague Kang Sun-nam and dictator Kim Jong Un.
After that, the US State Department announced that Russia intends to conclude an agreement with Kim Jong Un on the import of North Korean weapons. Washington is trying to disrupt the supply of weapons from North Korea to Russia with sanctions.
On October 13, a representative of the US President Joe Biden's administration John Kirby said that North Korea has transported more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions to Russia.
According to military analysts, such a transfer is unlikely to significantly change the course of hostilities, Reuters reported.
According to news agency Yonhap, after the meeting with Vladimir Putin, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held a meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party, the highest governing body of North Korea, and ordered to "strengthen close contacts and cooperation among relevant fields of the two countries to expand and develop cooperation in every field in an all-round way."