Russia has sent air-defence missiles and other military technology to North Korea in return for the deployment of its troops to support the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.
A top South Korean official made this known on Friday.
The U.S., South Korea and Ukraine say North Korea sent more than 10,000 troops to Russia in October, some of whom have recently begun engaging in combat.
It was unclear what Russia would give North Korea in return.
But in a TV interview on Friday, South Korea’s top security adviser, Shin Won-sik, suggested the Kremlin had started to fulfil its side of a deal to provide the regime in Pyongyang with technology and aid as “payment” for the deployment of more than 10,000 North Korean troops to Ukraine.
“It has been identified that equipment and anti-aircraft missiles aimed at reinforcing Pyongyang’s vulnerable air-defence system have been delivered to North Korea,” Shin, the national security adviser to the South’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol, told SBS TV.
According to the Associated Press, many observers said North Korea likely feels the urgent need to boost its air defense capabilities for the capital after the North last month accused South Korea of dropping propaganda leaflets over Pyongyang.
North Korea threatened to take military action if leaflets were again dropped. South Korea’s military has refused to confirm whether or not it was behind the alleged drone flights.
Shin says Russia has also give economic assistance to North Korea and various military technologies, including those needed to help the North build a reliable space-based surveillance system.
North Korea had also received “various forms of economic support” and may have acquired Russian technology for its troubled spy satellite programme, Shin said.
North Korea claimed it had put its first spy satellite into orbit in November last year after two failed attempts, but experts have questioned whether it is able to produce imagery that could be useful to the country’s military. Another satellite launch in May also ended in failure.
Experts believe North Korea agreed to send troops to the western Kursk border region in return for military technology, ranging from surveillance satellites to submarines, as well as possible security guarantees from Moscow.
South Korean intelligence officials told lawmakers this week they believed North Korean troops had been assigned to Russia’s airborne brigade and marine units, adding that some had already seen combat.
The US and South Korea are most concerned about possible transfers of Russian nuclear and missile technology to the North, which has continued to develop a nuclear arsenal in defiance of decades of UN-led sanctions.