SEOUL — Washington and Moscow flooded the Korean Peninsula with weapons and aid as they fueled the war between the South and the North 70 years ago. Now, at a fateful moment when history turns on itself, Russia and the United States are turning to those same allies to supply them with much-needed ammunition as the powers clash again, this time in Ukraine.
When President Vladimir V. Putin met with Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, in Russia’s Far East last month, they reached what North Korea called “a satisfactory agreement” on “the issues of immediate cooperation” between the two countries, which have found common interests in opposing the United States and its allies. If a specific arms deal was reached, neither Moscow nor Pyongyang were anticipated to announce it. Buying weapons from North Korea or providing aid to its weapons programs are violations of United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Matthew Miller, a State Department spokesman in Washington, described the meeting as Putin “begging Kim Jong-un to help him.”
And in a new analysis, satellite photographs appear to provide new evidence of cargo ships traveling between Russia and North Korea in support of an illicit arms trade that bolsters Moscow’s war in Ukraine. On October 13, the United States accused North Korea of sending more than a thousand containers to Russia that were believed to be full of weapons.
It is not only Russia that is turning to the Koreas for help: under agreements quietly drawn up with Washington, South Korea has been sending large quantities of artillery shells to the United States for months. It insists it does not supply lethal weapons directly to Ukraine. But its shipments to the U.S. military help free up U.S. stocks for Ukraine to use in the fight against Russia.
Still technically at war, both Koreas have engaged in an arms race, assembling two of the world’s largest standing armies with large weapons reserves since a ceasefire went into effect in 1953.
North Korea, although impoverished, has prioritized a military escalation. He is believed to have built his first ICBMs using black market rockets from Ukraine. The country has also made money by selling weapons to Syria and Iran.
South Korea has built its defense industry by copying weapons provided with US military aid. It also leveraged its arms industry for exports, winning multibillion-dollar contracts to sell tanks, howitzers, fighter jets, missiles and armored vehicles to help fuel demand driven, in part, by the war in Ukraine.
“In the post-Cold War era, South and North Korea have been virtually the only countries that have remained on a constant war footing, with large arsenals of artillery and other weapons ready to be used,” said Yang Uk, a military expert at the Asan Institute of Political Studies in Seoul. “The fact that South Korea and North Korea remain locked in a Cold War armed confrontation explains why Washington and Moscow turn to them for weapons.”
There has been a particular demand for artillery ammunition as both sides in the Ukraine conflict deplete their stocks faster than production can keep up. South Korean and U.S. officials have not said how many shells South Korea has provided to the United States, and Seoul treats information about its weapons stockpiles as secret. But recent news reports indicated that South Korea has sold or loaned at least hundreds of thousands of artillery shells to the U.S. military.
Moscow has warned Seoul not to supply weapons to Ukraine.
So far no evidence has emerged that South Korean-made projectiles were used in Ukraine. There has also been no public evidence that Russia used North Korean weapons and ammunition on the Ukrainian battlefield.
Analysts warn that Kim’s diplomacy with Putin signals a broader shift in his policy — aligning himself more definitively with Russia and China against the United States.
But there are still doubts that Putin will provide technology to North Korea to perfect its intercontinental ballistic missiles or build nuclear-powered submarines.
By: CHOE SANG-HUN
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/6943466, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-10-18 19:40:08
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