Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT), an initiative of 11 UN member states, has released a report detailing defense cooperation between the russian Federation and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The document outlines how Pyongyang is assisting Moscow with personnel, ammunition, and weapons systems to support the russian invasion force deployed against Ukraine.
The report also describes reciprocal support from the russian federation to the DPRK. Specifically, it states that since November 2024, russia has transferred short-range air defense systems and electronic warfare equipment to North Korean forces, and has likely conducted training on their use.
Read more: KN-06, North Korea's S-300 Copy, Doesn’t Eliminate Need for russian Air Defense
While reports of potential russian air defense exports to the DPRK had already surfaced last year, this is the first time it has been confirmed that among the transferred equipment is at least one Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft missile and artillery system.
This, according to the report, "provides the DPRK with a more modernized air defense system compared to its current inventory of legacy russian systems and its domestically-produced systems that have yet to be deployed."
Indeed, according to the Military Balance 2024 study by the IISS, the North Korean army’s ground-based air defenses consist primarily of outdated Soviet-era developments.
The ground forces operate a relatively modest range of Soviet models, including the 9K35 Strela-10 surface-to-air missile system, as well as 9K310 Igla-1 and 9K32 Strela-2 man-portable missile launchers. Open-source information also indicates the presence of their locally produced rip-offs, such as the HT-16PGJ, which appears to combine features of the Soviet Igla-1 and the Chinese QW-2.
As for the air defense systems available to the North Korean air force, the inventory is estimated to include more than 200 units:
- long-range: around a dozen S-200 SAM systems;
- medium-range: an unspecified number of Pongae-5 (North Korean analog of the S-300) and about 180 S-75 systems;
- short-range: roughly 20 S-125M1 Pechora systems;
- portable: Strela-2, Strela-3, and Igla-1.
Read more: While Salvaging Its Destroyer, North Korea Discovered a New Serious Problem
