Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu will visit North Korea for the anniversary of the Korean armistice, Pyongyang's state media reported on Tuesday, a sign that it looks set to reopen its borders to high-level visitors after a long closure of the pandemic.
"A Russian military delegation led by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu will pay a congratulatory visit to North Korea," the Korean Central News Agency reported, a day after confirming a Chinese delegation would also attend the event on Thursday.
Anyone who thinks that Shoigu will not discuss the supply of munitions (artillery projectiles-surface-to-surface missiles, etc.) with Dictator Kim is at least laughing.
The scenario here is complicated for the US and the West and involves the shipment of arms and ammunition from China to Russia via North Korea.
US executive branch National Security Council spokesman John Kirby in January 2023 released US intelligence images purported to show Russian wagons returning from North Korea loaded with military equipment, including shells.
The rigid regime of North Korea has its own defense industry, which, however, has a direct relationship with the Chinese one, while Beijing and Moscow have their own plans against the hegemony of the USA, as they say.
Western analysts believe that the Russians have provided North Korea with submarine-launched ballistic missile technology, giving the regime the ability to bomb not only South Korean territory but also Japan, with the prospect of breaching US missile defenses in the Pacific region. .
Based on the available details, the US Pentagon is concerned as it expands this picture and assumes that North Korea tried to launch its own copy of the Russian 3M-14 Kalibr missile. Such an assumption is viable because even China uses the copy of the Kalibr 2 missile, codenamed YJ-18, as the main cruise missile for its submarines.
This submarine, in service with the North Korean navy since about 2019, is based on the Soviet Project 629 submarine, which has launch silos for three ballistic missiles located in its sail. This submarine also has 6 torpedo pods, although only 2 of them are above the waterline.
Another question is how long it would take North Korean engineers to copy the Russian Kalibr missile and when the technologies could potentially be exchanged.
US officials have expressed concern over Iran's growing military ties to Russia and the prospect of North Korea supplying weapons to Russia's struggling military.
Russia is, along with China, one of North Korea's few international allies and has already directly aided the North Korean regime.
