Pyongyang has supplied Moscow’s army with long-range rocket and artillery systems, some of which have been moved to Russia’s Kursk region for an assault involving North Korean soldiers to push out Ukrainian forces, a Ukrainian intelligence assessment has found.
In recent weeks, North Korea provided some 50 domestically produced 170mm M1989 self-propelled howitzers and 20 updated 240mm multiple launch rocket systems that can fire standard rockets and guided ones, said the assessment, which was shared with the Financial Times.
The new weapons deliveries from North Korea mark the latest expansion of the authoritarian state’s support for Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Michael Kofman, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said they follow a pattern of deepening North Korean involvement, “from sending large volumes of ammunition, weapons, and becoming a direct party to this war, which could help Russian forces retake the Kursk region”.
North Korea has already played a critical role in providing millions of rounds of artillery ammunition for the Russian military in 2023, he noted.
It has deepened its involvement this year by sending more than 12,000 troops, according to multiple western intelligence assessments, further internationalising the conflict.
“North Korea has now become Russia’s accomplice and is helping Putin in this illegal war,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an address on Saturday after meeting Japan’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Takeshi Iwaya in Kyiv.
“I informed [Iwaya] about the North Korean military’s activities in the Kursk region, about all the threats posed by Pyongyang and Moscow’s cooperation,” Zelenskyy added. “Russia is training North Korea in modern warfare, and this can cause a much wider destabilisation.”
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