SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea has delivered approximately 1 million artillery shells to Russia to aid its war against neighboring Ukraine and is on the verge of a third attempt to place a reconnaissance satellite into orbit, according to South Korea’s National Intelligence Service.
The NIS delivered the information in a closed-door briefing to lawmakers. The findings were made public Wednesday by lawmaker Yoo Sang-bum of the ruling People Power Party.
Such leaks of intelligence findings, which have sparked concern at times among Seoul’s allies, are common practice in South Korea.
The missile shipments are the latest sign of an emerging axis building between North Korea and Russia, fueled by a string of high-level contacts. The warming military relationship between Kim Jong Un’s North Korea and Russia under President Vladimir Putin has unnerved officials in both Washington and Seoul in recent months.
Russia, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, denies it has violated numerous U.N. sanctions on North Korea’s nuclear and conventional military programs.
It is believed in South Korea that, in a barter deal for North Korean weapons, munitions and possibly labor, Russia could supply food, fuel and sophisticated military technologies — including those linked to satellites and submarines.
North Korea has twice failed with satellite launch attempts this year. The clash in Ukraine, which is being watched closely across East Asia, has made clear the military importance of satellite oversight and data-networked weapons systems, such as drones and long-range artillery and missiles.
Mr. Kim met Mr. Putin on September 13 at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East. That site is used exclusively for launches of unmanned satellites.
North Korea, which is believed to maintain huge ammunition stockpiles that could work with Russian armaments. Russian military doctrine puts heavy emphasis on artillery, and a million shells would supply Russian guns for two months of fighting, Mr. Yoo stated.
The South Korean intelligence builds on satellite imagery last month from both the White House and open-source intelligence groups showing expanding rail and sea traffic between North Korea and Russia. Closed shipping containers from those transits were later spotted in Tikhoretsk, a Russian depot near the Ukrainian theater.
Russian forces in Ukraine have been fighting with renewed vigor since Mr. Kim’s Russia meetings with Mr. Putin and other Russian officials, including Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. After weathering Ukraine’s summer offensive for months, Russian forces are now engaged in counterattacks, including a major campaign against the fortified Ukrainian-held town of Avdiivka in Donetsk Oblast.
The strength of the move led the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, which has carefully tracked the fighting since the invasion began in February 2022, to revise upward its risk analyses of the conflict.
Ukrainian forces in the area are currently in a deep salient, enclosed on three sides. The ISW noted on October 31 that Russia “continued offensive operations near Avdiivka on October 31 and made confirmed advances.”
The only evidence of North Korean arms found so far on the battlefield, however, has been a single multiple-launch rocket system in use by Ukrainian troops.
• Andrew Salmon can be reached at asalmon@washingtontimes.com.