SEOUL: North Korea has shipped about 6,700 containers carrying hundreds of thousands of munitions to Russia since July to assist its war against Ukraine, in an indication of ongoing arms transfers, South Korean media reported on Tuesday (Feb 27), citing the defence minister.
At a briefing on Monday for native media, Minister Shin Received-sik stated the containers would possibly carry greater than 3 million 152 mm artillery shells, or 500,000 122mm rounds.
“It might presumably be a mixture of the 2, and you’ll say that a minimum of a number of million shells have been despatched,” Shin stated, in line with the Yonhap information company.
A whole bunch of North Korean munitions factories are working at round 30 per cent of their capability because of a scarcity of uncooked supplies and electrical energy, however these producing artillery shells for Russia had been working “at full swing”, he added, with out elaborating on the supply of the knowledge.
Seoul and Washington have accused Pyongyang and Moscow of buying and selling arms and condemned the North for supplying weapons to Russia to be used in opposition to Ukraine. Both countries have denied it at the same time as they pledged to strengthen military cooperation.
The US State Division, in a truth sheet launched on Friday, stated that North Korea has delivered greater than 10,000 containers of munitions or associated supplies to Russia since September.
In trade, North Korea has obtained some 9,000 containers largely containing meals provides, which Shin stated has helped stabilise costs there.
An official at Seoul’s defence ministry stated it couldn’t verify the numbers, however quoted Shin as saying that Russia has despatched practically 30 per cent extra containers since July to North Korea than the North has shipped.
Shin stated North Korea might fireplace one other satellite tv for pc as early as subsequent month as Moscow continued to offer technical support, and Pyongyang has additionally requested for help with plane and floor mobility gear know-how.
“It’s unclear how a lot Russia will give, however the extra dependent Russia will get on North Korean artillery shells, the better the diploma of Russian know-how transfers might be,” he stated, in line with Yonhap.