US, South Korea Chide North Korea for Providing Arms to Russia

Courtney McBride and Shinhye Kang, Bloomberg News

A North Korean flag flies above North Korea's Gijungdong village, from the truce village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in Paju, South Korea, on Friday, March 3, 2023. The US and South Korea plan to hold large-scale military drills in a move set anger Pyongyang, which has promised an unprecedented response to the exercises and threatened to turn the Pacific Ocean into its "firing range." Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- The US and South Korea condemned North Korea for providing arms to Russia for its war in Ukraine, with the Biden administration’s top diplomat saying cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang has increased global security risks.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken also reaffirmed Washington’s “ironclad” commitment to ally South Korea when he had talks Thursday with top officials including President Yoon Suk Yeol and Foreign Minister Park Jin.

“We are seeing a two-way street,” Blinken said at a news conference with Park. “We are seeing the DPRK provide military equipment to Russia for pursuing its aggression against Ukraine, but we are also seeing Russia provide technology and support to the DPRK for its own military programs,” he said, referring to North Korea by its formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

There have been about 10 shipments of weapons from North Korea to Russia since August, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said in a closed-door briefing with lawmakers this month, according to Yoo Sang-bum. More than 1 million rounds of artillery shells have been sent, said Yoo, who is a member of the parliamentary intelligence committee and relayed the remarks to reporters that the spy agency made to lawmakers.

About 2,000 containers of military equipment have been sent since September and shipments also may have included short-range ballistic missiles and portable anti-aircraft missiles, Yonhap News agency reported separately, citing a senior South Korean military official it did not name.

Blinken called North Korea’s behavior, rhetoric and weapons tests destabilizing. He said the US and its partners would work to prevent any arms shipments that help Russia in its war and is looking at the support is Russia providing North Korea.

Blinken also sought the help of China to restrain North Korea. Beijing has been Pyongyang’s biggest benefactor for years.

North Korea and Russia have denied months of US and South Korean accusations that Pyongyang is providing weapons to Moscow. The Biden administration has said the arms won’t change the course of the war but would add to the grinding assaults the Kremlin has unleashed on its neighbor.

North Korea holds some of the largest stores of munitions and rockets that are interoperable with the Soviet-era weaponry Russia has sent to the front lines in Ukraine. Cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow has increased as the two have been pushed into global isolation.

Leader Kim Jong Un won pledges of help for his space program when he met President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Russia in September, including assistance in building satellites and firing them off on Russian rockets.

The US and its partners have warned that technology derived from North Korea’s space program could be used to advance its ballistic missiles, and cautioned any help Putin offers Kim would violate United Nations Security Council measures that Russia had voted to approve.

--With assistance from Seyoon Kim.

(Updates and writes through with news conference.)