North Korea sent more artillery systems to Russia in a recent shipment of conventional arms, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers on Wednesday.
Pyongyang exported 170mm self-propelled guns and 240mm multiple rocket launch systems to aid the Russian war effort in Ukraine, the National Intelligence Service said in a briefing, according to lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun who was in attendance.
According to a Ukrainian intelligence assessment from Saturday, Russia received around 50 self-propelled howitzers and 20 multiple launch rocket systems from North Korea.
The Russian military did not operate these types of artillery systems, Mr Lee said, so North Korea likely also sent trainers along.
Seoul’s latest claims about Pyongyang’s involvement in the Ukraine war came only a week after Russian social media circulated pictures purportedly showing North Korean ”Koksan” 170mm self-propelled guns arriving in the country by rail.
Mr Lee also said that there were around 10,900 North Korean soldiers in Kursk, fighting alongside Russian airborne troops and marines to repel a Ukrainian invasion of the border region launched in August.
Russia and North Korea signed a mutual defence treaty during president Vladimir Putin’s visit to Pyongyang earlier this year that obligates each to rush to the other’s aid in the event of an attack.
Intelligence assessments from Washington, Seoul and Kyiv in the last few weeks said North Korea was deeply involved in the war, which just passed 1,000 days, with its soldiers reported to be fighting Ukrainian troops.
North Korean foreign minister Choe Son Hui’s meeting with Mr Putin in Moscow earlier this month possibly laid the groundwork for a visit by Kim Jong-un, another lawmaker, Park Sun-won, quoted the spy agency as reporting.
The lawmaker further said the spy agency was ascertaining North Korean troop losses and surrenders in Ukraine amid conflicting information.
North Korea’s alleged involvement in the Russian war effort has sparked furious responses from Kyiv’s allies in Europe and the US. Using North Korean soldiers showed that Mr Putin was not closer to winning the war but ready to escalate it, said Austrian foreign minister Alexander Schallenberg.
The authorisation by US president Joe Biden for Ukraine to use American missiles like ATACMS to hit deeper inside Russia is also claimed to be a response to North Korea’s decision to send soldiers.
Analysts, however, said the move would have limited impact on the war. “To really impose costs on Russia, Ukraine would need large stockpiles of ATACMS, which it doesn’t have and won’t receive because the United States’ own supplies are limited,” said Jennifer Kavanagh, director of military analysis at Defence Priorities.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said the rockets would speak for themselves. “Today, many in the media are talking about the fact that we have received permission to take appropriate actions,” he said. “But blows are not inflicted with words. Such things are not announced,” he said of the announcement.”
