As of: March 18, 2024, 4:37 p.m
By: Erkan Pehlivan
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Press
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Russia received masses of weapons and ammunition from North Korea in 2023.
But the “communist” country also receives goods from Moscow.
Pyongyang/Moscow - After more than two years of war in Ukraine, Russia should also be running out of ammunition.
However, the giant empire can look forward to supplies from North Korea.
As the US magazine
Time
writes, citing the South Korean Defense Ministry, the country of leader Kim Jong Un supplied Russia with 7,000 container loads of ammunition and weapons in 2023.
North Korea receives 9,000 container loads from Russia
According to the report, North Korea had received more than 9,000 container loads of aid from Russia.
According to South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik, Russia may have supplied North Korea with fuel "in defiance of U.N. Security Council sanctions that strictly restrict imports of oil and petroleum products into the country,"
Time
reported.
Vladimir Putin received Kim Jong-un at Russia's new Vostochny cosmodrome in Siberia in September.
© IMAGO/Sven Simon
The delivery from Russia has apparently led to relaxation in North Korea.
“The economic situation was very bad, but since last year the situation regarding food and fuel has improved significantly in return for arms exports to Russia,” the US news agency
UPI
quoted the South Korean defense minister as saying.
Russia and North Korea are expanding relations – Kim Jong Un has been in power since 2011
Relations between the two states, which are isolated from the West, have improved significantly since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin showed North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a Russian luxury limousine from the Aurus brand during his visit to Russia last September, which now also serves as the president's state car.
Since the visit, both countries have significantly increased their cooperation.
A UN expert report recently said that North Korea imported significantly more goods in 2023 and expanded its trade with its new partner Russia.
The US government announced in October that North Korea had sent military equipment and ammunition to Russia for the war in Ukraine.
The North Korean leader was also one of the first to congratulate Putin on his re-election.
Kim Jong Un has been in power in North Korea since 2011;
at that time he took over the leadership of the country after his father's death.
He relies on constant rearmament and the expansion of the nuclear capacities of his military.
There have already been four nuclear weapons tests during his term in office, the last one in 2017. (
erpe/AFP
)