Russia’s defence minister used a recent visit to Pyongyang to request an increase in North Korean arms supplies, the White House said on Thursday.
Sergei Shoigu vowed to strengthen military ties with North Korea on a visit to mark the 70th anniversary of the Korean war armistice last week, during which he attended a military parade and a weapons exhibition.
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters in Washington that Shoigu had travelled to North Korea to try to convince Pyongyang to sell munitions to Russia.
“Our information indicates that Russia is seeking to increase military co-operation with [North Korea], such as through [North Korea’s] sale of artillery munitions . . . to Russia,” said Kirby, noting that any arms deal between the two countries would violate a series of UN Security Council resolutions.
“This is yet another example of how desperate Mr Putin has become because his war machine is being affected by the sanctions and the export controls,” Kirby added. “He is going through a vast amount of inventory to try to subjugate Ukraine, and he’s reaching out to countries like North Korea, like Iran, and certainly he’s been trying to reach out to China to get support for his war machine.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has energetically courted favour with Russian president Vladimir Putin since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, with each offering the other material aid and political backing.
Russia has stepped up shipments of grain to North Korea this year amid widespread reports of food shortages after Kim sealed the country’s borders in response to the coronavirus pandemic. In November, the eastern Russian region of Primorsky Krai announced that rail trade between the two countries had commenced for the first time in three years.
During his visit, Shoigu relayed a message from Putin thanking Kim for North Korea’s “unwavering support” for Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Kim also gave the Russian defence minister a personal tour of a large exhibition of North Korean weapons in Pyongyang. They included new surveillance and combat drone designs and intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Military analysts note that North Korea possesses short-range ballistic missiles that resemble Russia’s Iskander missiles, which the Russian armed forces have used extensively in Ukraine.
According to an analysis by Seoul-based media outlet NK News, a Russian military plane made an unannounced visit to Pyongyang on Tuesday and Wednesday, a week after Shoigu was in North Korea.
The plane, a Russian Air Force II-62M, is used for high-level military delegations. Analysts noted satellite imagery suggesting that the North Korean weapons exhibition was still going on at the time.
In June, the US said North Korea had already completed a delivery of infantry rockets and missiles to Kremlin-linked private military company Wagner Group.
The Financial Times reported last week that Ukrainian artillery crews had also been firing rockets made in North Korea against Russian positions. The North Korean arms were used by troops operating Soviet-era Grad multiple-launch rocket systems near the devastated city of Bakhmut.
On Friday, North Korea strongly criticised a US decision to provide Taiwan with $345mn in weapons.
The military aid package, which marks the first time the Pentagon will send arms directly to the country to boost its defences, was described by a North Korean foreign ministry official as a “dangerous political and military provocation”.
“It is the sinister intention of the US to turn Taiwan into an unsinkable advanced base against China and the first-line trench for carrying out its strategy for deterring China,” the official added, according to a statement released by North Korea’s state news agency.