Russian President Vladimir Putin, second left in front, and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, second right in front, examine a rocket assembly hangar during their meeting at the Vostochny cosmodrome outside the city of Tsiolkovsky, in Russia, on September 13, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

North Korea has likely supplied several types of missiles to Russia to support its war in Ukraine, along with its widely reported shipments of ammunition and shells, South Korea’s military said on November 2.

The assessment was released a day after South Korea’s spy service told law-makers that North Korea recently provided more than a million artillery shells to Russia amid deepening military cooperation between the two countries, both key U.S. adversaries.

In a background briefing for local journalists, South Korea’s military said that North Korea is suspected of sending an unspecified number of short-range ballistic missiles, anti-tank missiles and portable anti-air missiles to Russia, in addition to rifles, rocket launchers, mortars and shells. The contents of the briefing were shared with The Associated Press.

Last week, South Korea, the U.S. and Japan strongly condemned what they call North Korea’s supply of munitions and military equipment to Russia, saying that such weapons shipments sharply increase the human toll of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Any weapons trade with North Korea would be a violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions, which Russia, a permanent U.N. Security Council member, previously endorsed.

Both Russia and North Korea dismissed the weapons shipment accusations as baseless. Outside speculation about North Korean arms shipments flared after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un travelled to Russia in September to meet President Vladimir Putin and visit key military facilities. The U.S. and its allies accuse North Korea of seeking high-tech Russian technologies to modernise its arsenal of nuclear weapons and missiles in return for its shipments of conventional arms.

In a private briefing with lawmakers on Wednesday, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) — South Korea’s main spy agency — said that more than a million North Korean artillery shells have been sent to Russia since August via ships and transport planes. “The NIS said the shells roughly amounted to two months’ worth of supplies for the Russians,” according to lawmaker Yoo Sang-bum, who attended the NIS briefing.

The NIS assessed that North Korea has been operating its munitions factories at full capacity to meet Russian munition demands and has also been mobilising residents to increase production.

The NIS said North Korea, for its part, is likely receiving Russian technological assistance over its plan to launch its first military spy satellite into space. North Korea’s two recent attempts to launch a spy satellite ended in failure due to technical issues. The North failed to follow through with its vow to make a third launch attempt in October, without giving any reasons.

South Korea’s military said North Korea also seeks to receive nuclear-related technologies, fighter jets or related aircraft equipment and assistance on the establishment of anti-air defense networks from Russia.

A South Korean military vessel tows a North Korean boat that carried people believed to be seeking to defect from the country, to a port in Yangyang, South Korea, on October 24, 2023.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

“Four North Koreans were found in a small wooden boat in South Korean waters on October 24 in what is likely a rare case of North Koreans taking a risky sea voyage to flee to the South,” Seoul officials said.

More than 30,000 North Koreans have fled to South Korea to avoid poverty and political oppression since the late 1990s. A vast majority of them have come via a land route with China and defecting by sea is uncommon because it’s more dangerous.

A South Korean coast guard ship found the boat south of the two Koreas’ eastern sea border on Tuesday morning, after a report by a fishing boat. “The four people on board identified themselves as North Koreans,” coast guard officials said.

South Korea’s military said it secured the custody of the North Koreans in coordination with the coast guard, after chasing their boat along the sea border. A military statement said the North Koreans were suspected of defecting to South Korea but gave no further details.

South Korean public broadcaster KBS, citing an unidentified government official, reported that the four North Koreans — a man and three women — are members of one family. KBS said they were not armed and did not wear military uniforms when they were found.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry declined to provide personal details of the four, saying an investigation was under way. North Korea’s state media did not immediately report on the four North Koreans.

North Korean defectors are required to undergo questioning by South Korean authorities to determine whether their desire to resettle is genuine.

In 2019, South Korea deported two North Korean fishermen who said they wished to resettle, after determining they were criminals who had killed 16 fellow crew members. Earlier, several North Koreans were arrested after South Korean investigations concluded they were spies who had entered the country posing as defectors.

The 2019 deportation drew withering criticism by human rights groups, which argued that South Korea’s liberal government at the time had hurriedly expelled the fishermen in the hopes of improving ties with North Korea, after learning North Korean authorities were pursuing them.

Some past defections triggered tensions between the two Koreas. South Korea accepts those who choose to resettle in the South, but North Korea often says its people are held against their will in the South and demand they be returned.

If the four North Koreans found Tuesday are determined to be genuine defectors, it would be the second case of North Koreans fleeing to the South by sea this year. In May, nine defected by sea off the Korean Peninsula’s west coast, according to South Korea’s Unification Ministry.