Russia & North Korea: Putin Gets Rockets, Artillery Shells

By Jim Morris, Warrior Vice President, News

On his visit to North Korea, Vladimir Putin’s shopping list likely included the items he desperately needs to continue the war in Ukraine – artillery shells and short-range ballistic missiles.

The Russian president arrived in Pyongyang Wednesday at the unconventional hour of 3 a.m. and was greeted warmly by the Hermit Kingdom’s “Supreme Leader” Kim Jong Un. As is customary on these visits, the two leaders were to sign pre-negotiated agreements on matters such as food, energy and security.

What wasn’t discussed publicly was how North Korea has become a munitions lifeline for Moscow more than two years after the invasion of Ukraine.

South Korea’s defense minister Shin Wonsik told Bloomberg News last week that North Korea has sent Russia shipping containers that could contain almost five million artillery shells. The Russians are believed to be acquiring 152mm artillery shells and rounds for 122mm multiple rocket launchers.

“While North Korea’s factories(for non-Russian exports) operate at 30 percent capacity due to shortages of raw materials and electricity, the factories producing weapons and artillery shells for Russia are operating at full capacity,” Shin said earlier this year in a briefing with reporters.

Putin also is likely to come back to Moscow with promises that North Korea will send more missiles.

Last month, the US Defense Intelligence Agency said that an analysis of debris imagery confirms that Russia has used North Korean missiles in Ukraine. An unclassified summary of the DIA report said that debris from North Korean solid-propellant short-range ballistic missiles had been discovered in the Kharkiv region in January.