North Korea is ramping up ammunition and weapons production to support russia, with its military-industrial facilities actively expanding to meet this demand. According to a recent report by The Wall Street Journal, russia may have already paid $5.5 billion for weapons and another $576 million for North Korean troops engaged in the war in Ukraine.
Defense Express would like to particularly emphasize those figures, we'll return to them and dive into analysis in just a while, but first, let's also point out some previously unknown details from the original report that warrant special attention.
Read more: What's the Point of russia Having Pukguksong-2 Mid-Range Missile Or What It Could Be Otherwise
NEW: North Korea has increased its arms shipments to Russia amid the Ukraine war, sending both older ammunition and advanced weapons like ballistic missiles and rocket launchers. With Russian technical assistance, North Korea's arms production is operating at full capacity to… pic.twitter.com/nd2cJsMasM — Clash Report (@clashreport) December 23, 2024
The WSJ claims that russia is supplying North Korea with energy resources and industrial equipment, which are, in turn, being directly used to produce more weapons for russian military needs.
Additionally, in early 2024, russian technical personnel reportedly assisted North Korea in modernizing its KN-25 missile, a system with a declared range of 400 kilometers. The russians had shown a keen interest in acquiring those missiles from North Korea, too.
Now, let’s revisit the financial figures, starting with some introductory data.
The $5.5 billion allocated for arms purchases covers approximately 100 KN-23 ballistic missiles, 20,000 containers of artillery shells, and several dozen Koksan self-propelled guns and multiple rocket launchers known in the West as the M-1991.
Furthermore, considering that russia received several million artillery shells — amounting to 60% of the russian army's current arsenal — the overall price tag could even be seen as quite moderate.
The $576 million figure for manpower, however, is somewhat unexpected. It was previously speculated that russia might compensate North Korea for deploying troops with its Soviet-era MiG-29 and Su-27 aircraft.
Dividing this amount by the estimated 12,000 North Korean troops in Ukraine results in $48,000 per soldier, which is surprisingly high, especially by russian standards.
This may indicate that the funds are not just to pay for the soldiers already deployed but also to expand the North Korean contingent further.
And here's the silver lining. These relatively low figures should be a stark warning for the West: authoritarian regimes like North Korea and russia can wage war much cheaper than democratic nations. Yet, the civilized world prefers to overlook this disparity for the time being.
Read more: The 3rd Assault Brigade Strikes Hard in Kharkiv Region (Video)
