North Korea's secret arms deal with Russia revealed at UN
North Korea has delivered 6 million units of artillery ammunition and over 100 ballistic missiles to Russia. In return, Pyongyang received air defence systems and space technologies, disclosed U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield during a debate in the UN Security Council.
According to Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, North Korea sent over 20,000 containers of ammunition to Russia, including heavy artillery shells. Pyongyang also provided Russia self-propelled howitzers of 170 mm calibre (approximately 6.7 inches) and rocket artillery systems. Furthermore, among the more than 11,000 soldiers sent by North Korea to fight in Ukraine are elite special forces units.
The U.S. ambassador expressed concern about the possibility of Russia formally accepting the North Korean nuclear weapons programme.
"Alarmingly, we assess that Russia may be close to accepting North Korea's nuclear-weapons program, reversing Moscow's decades-long commitment to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula," she said, adding that Russia may sabotage the sanctions programme against the programme.
Such a stance would mean reversing the decades-long commitment to denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.
During the debate, Jonah Leff from Conflict Armament Research reported that remnants of North Korean missiles were found in Ukraine. This suggests that Moscow is using freshly produced missiles by DPRK, which contain Western components.
