(Bloomberg) — Russia wants to buy millions of rockets and artillery shells from North Korea to use in its war against Ukraine, US officials said, in the latest sign that international sanctions are forcing Moscow to seek help from the nation’s smaller, impoverished neighbor.
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The decision to buy the munitions indicated that Russia “continues to suffer from severe supply shortages in Ukraine due in part to export controls and sanctions,” State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters Tuesday.
“Our sense is that it could include literally millions of rounds,” said John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council. There were no indications that purchases from North Korea have been completed, Kirby said.
US officials portrayed the purchase as a sign that Russia’s struggle to supply its military campaign was so great that it must turn to fellow pariah states. Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns said in July that Russia had approached Iran to buy armed drones.
Russia has sought to expand ties with its one-time Cold War ally, as President Vladimir Putin tries to counter US-led efforts to isolate him. North Korea’s economy is weathering its worst economic slump in decades in part due to international sanctions over Kim Jong Un’s nuclear program that Russia supported as a member of the United Nations Security Council.
Putin told Kim in a message sent on North Korea’s independence day last month that he wants to expand “comprehensive and constructive bilateral relations,” according to the official Korean Central News Agency. North Korea, which shares a rail link with Russia, is one of the few countries that have recognized the Kremlin-controlled “People’s Republics” in Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.
The New York Times reported Sept. 5 that newly declassified US intelligence showed Russia was buying rockets and artillery shells. “It is indicative of the situation that Russia finds itself in, in terms of its logistics and sustainment capabilities as it relates to Ukraine,” Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder told reporters Tuesday.
The South Korean Foreign Ministry said it was “closely monitoring Russia’s possible purchasing of North Korean weapons, and is currently communicating the matter with our key allies,” adding that buying North Korean weaponry would violate UN Security Council resolutions.
Whether North Korea could provide such quantities of munitions fast enough to help Russia is unclear. Still, the request risks invalidating the UN sanctions regime on North Korea, said Wang Son-taek, director of the Global Policy Center at the Han Pyeong Peace Institute in South Korea.
“This may weaken the effect of economic sanctions on North Korea,” Wang said. “The sanction regime becomes effective only if the US, China and Russia work together. It would ultimately have a negative effect in terms of resolving the North Korean nuclear issue.”
(Updates with South Korea Foreign Ministry comment in eighth paragraph.)
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