Russia has sent air defence missiles and other military technology to North Korea in return for the deployment of troops from the North to support the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine, intelligence officials in South Korea have said.
The shipments were the latest expression of a deepening alliance that allies and enemies fear could fuel the escalation of the war in Ukraine, geopolitical tensions in Asia, and potentially even global nuclear arms proliferation.
North Korea’s dispatch of troops to fight against Ukraine and weapons from its vast stockpiles has been repaid with Russian oil and advanced military technology, experts believe, although neither side has commented publicly on the practical details of their alliance.
As a sign of how important the relationship is to Pyongyang, one of the country’s top generals has been deployed to supervise more than 10,000 men now fortifying Russian lines in the Kursk region, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Their numbers could grow. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has said up to 100,000 North Korean troops could join the battlefield, without giving further details.
When Joe Biden authorised Ukrainian troops to use the US-made Atacms missiles to hit Russian territory this week, the decision was in part a response to the arrival of North Korean troops there, US officials said.
Russia responded to the first use of Atacms inside its borders by denouncing Biden’s decision as escalatory, then striking the Ukrainian city of Dnipro with a new, nuclear-capable missile that underlined its own capacity to escalate.
Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK, Valerii Zaluzhnyy, formerly the country’s top general, warned this week that North Korean troops fighting beside Russians should be recognised as a sign that the war in Ukraine had already spilled over national borders.
“We can absolutely assume that world war three has begun,” Zaluzhnyy told an awards ceremony in Kyiv, the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper reported.
“The reason is that in 2024 Ukraine is no longer facing Russia. Ukraine is facing soldiers from North Korea. Let’s be honest. Iranian-made Shaheds [drones] are killing civilians in Ukraine.”
In a TV interview on Friday, South Korea’s top security adviser, Shin Won-sik, suggested the Kremlin’s technology and aid was “payment” for the deployment of more than 10,000 North Korean troops to Ukraine.
Experts believe North Korea has been promised military technology ranging from surveillance satellites to submarines, and possible security guarantees from Moscow.
“It has been identified that equipment and anti-aircraft missiles aimed at reinforcing Pyongyang’s vulnerable air defence system have been delivered to North Korea,” Shin, the national security adviser to the South’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol, told the broadcaster SBS.
North Korea is thought to be eager to bolster air defences after it accused South Korea of using drones to drop propaganda leaflets over the capital in October.
Shin did not offer details of how intelligence officials had confirmed the arrival of Russian military support, and North Korea and the Kremlin have not commented on his claims.
The US and South Korea are concerned about possible transfers of Russian nuclear and missile technology to the North, which has continued to develop a nuclear arsenal in defiance of decades of UN-led sanctions.
In June, Vladimir Putin travelled to Pyongyang to meet the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un. They signed a mutual aid agreement that obliged both countries to provide military assistance “without delay” in the case of an attack on the other.
The leaders are thought to have agreed to cooperate to oppose western sanctions targeting Russia and the North’s ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programmes.
China, North Korea’s neighbour and longstanding economic and political backer, has not directly commented on the North Korean troop deployment to Ukraine or Moscow’s embrace of Pyongyang.
However, a series of subtle diplomatic moves have indicated Beijing’s displeasure, including in July when the Chinese ambassador in Pyongyang stayed away from celebrations marking the anniversary of the end of the Korean war.
China is thought to share concerns that technology transfers to North Korea could fuel regional proliferation, including nuclear weapons, and deepen geopolitical tensions with US allies on its doorstep, particularly Japan and South Korea.
A military alliance also means that in theory China could be drawn into the war if North Korean territory is attacked from Ukraine, although currently that seems a very remote possibility.
North Korea had also received “various forms of economic support” from Russia in return for its troops and weapons and may have acquired technology for its troubled spy satellite programme, Shin said.
Pyongyang claimed it had put its first spy satellite into orbit in November last year after two failed attempts, but experts have questioned whether it can produce imagery that could be useful to the country’s military. Another satellite launch in May also failed.
Shin did not say whether Russia had made transfers, and experts believe the Kremlin is unlikely to agree to provide such sensitive technology while the North’s troop deployment alongside Russians is still in its early stages.
For now, the bulk of the military aid appears to be moving in one direction. North Korea has sent more than 13,000 containers of artillery, missiles and other conventional arms to Russia since August 2023, South Korea’s national intelligence service said last month.
Intelligence officials told parliament this week they believed North Korean soldiers had already seen combat, with some assigned to Russia’s airborne brigade and marine units.
