Washington
CNN
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The United States has accused North Korea of secretly supplying Russia with artillery shells for the war in Ukraine and hiding the destination, according to newly declassified intelligence services.
U.S. officials said the clandestine shipments from North Korea, along with drones and other weapons Russia obtained from Iran, are further evidence that even Moscow’s conventional artillery arsenal has dwindled in eight months of fighting. North Korea is trying to cover up the shipment by making it look like the ammunition is being sent to countries in the Middle East or North Africa, intelligence agencies say.
Recent intelligence reports came about two months after U.S. intelligence said it believed Russia was buying millions of rockets and artillery shells from North Korea for use on the battlefield, according to CNN and others. news agency reported at the time.
“(The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) publicly denied any intention to provide ammunition to Russia in September,” John Kirby, the National Security Council’s strategic communications coordinator, said in a statement to CNN. rice field. “However, our information indicates that the DPRK is secretly supplying a significant number of artillery shells to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Trying to make it look as if it was sent to a country in the Middle East, East or North Africa.
Authorities did not provide evidence to support the new allegations. The declassified information also did not provide details on how many weapons were included in the shipment or how they would be paid for.
“We will continue to monitor whether these shipments are received,” Kirby said, adding that Russia has taken North He pointed out that the United States continues to turn its attention to actors such as Korea and Iran.
But American officials are publicly touting the deal as evidence that Russia is running out of weapons to continue the war.
About two weeks ago, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haynes claimed that “export restrictions force Russia to rely on countries like Iran and North Korea for UAVs, artillery, rockets and other supplies.”
Kirby said on Wednesday that aid from Iran and North Korea was “not going to turn the tide of the war,” and the United States pledged to provide continued security assistance to Ukraine.
But the shipment could help Russia bolster a vital part of its war effort.
“One of the challenges for Russia is sustaining artillery fire, so it could be an important development,” said Michael Coffman, director of the Russian Studies Program at the Center for Naval Analysis. He stressed that he had no knowledge of the information. “At this point, the Russian military likely shot through millions of shells.”
Coffman said Russia is “compensating for manpower shortages with much higher firepower,” and that the strategy “is likely to be very costly to supply ammunition,” making Russia, like Ukraine, a Away, they scoured the world for a country that had a Soviet-caliber artillery supply compatible with that system to sustain the war.
Weeks before the new information was obtained, some military and intelligence officials had begun to believe that North Korea was withdrawing from the agreement to provide weapons to Russia, multiple officials told CNN. explained.
Some officials believe that when the U.S. revealed the deal, it cast an undesirable light on the deal, leading the Biden administration to selectively declassify and release classified information about Russia’s war pursuits. began touting it as a winning strategy for Pyongyang did not want disclosure.
But now, US officials believe the rogue regime is pushing its aid to Moscow as the war appears poised to enter its second year, despite North Korea’s denials. There is
US officials have publicly claimed that Russia is being forced to seek arms from North Korea and Iran in order to obtain the technological components Russia needs to rebuild its own stockpile.
U.S. officials say they will work to intercept and counter shipments from Iran and North Korea to Russia and target the networks that enable those shipments, but have not specified how they plan to do so. do not have.
U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Tuesday that the U.S. military had “blocked” arms shipments in the past, but did not say whether blocking was being considered as the weapons flowed into Russia. .
New information that Russia is acquiring artillery ammunition from North Korea suggests the shortage is more acute than for more sophisticated precision-guided munitions. .
“Russia is really lazy with some of the input it needs to prosecute a war with Ukraine,” Price said on Tuesday, adding that export controls and sanctions have dried up Russia’s input into the war against Ukraine. I pointed out that Craft a specific weapon.
The exact state of Russia’s conventional ammunition stocks is not publicly known, but Russia “burns tens of thousands of bullets a day,” said the Federation of American Scientists’ Defense Posture Project director. Adam Mount said. in North Korea. “They want ammunition wherever they can get it.”
During the summer, Russia was able to make significant progress in punitive artillery operations in parts of Ukraine. Since then, however, the artillery provided by the West has contributed to a successful counteroffensive by Ukraine, which has recaptured much of Russia’s previously held territory.
North Korea could likely provide Russia with 122-mm or 152-mm artillery shells and tube guns or multiple rocket launchers compatible with the Russian system, said former CIA South Korea analyst Bruce Bruce. Klingner said. Currently at the Heritage Foundation.
But for now, it’s unclear how much North Korean artillery shells will affect Russia on the battlefield.
In 2010, North Korea fired 170 122mm shells into South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island. Less than half hit the island, and about a quarter of those failed to explode. This high failure rate is due to “some North Korean-made artillery shells, especially (multi-rocket launcher) shells, are subject to poor quality control during manufacturing or to a 2016 study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.” reports that its storage conditions and standards are poor.
“The last time they used these systems, we found their systems to be pretty inaccurate,” Mount said. “These Soviet-era systems are aging and are expected to start failing.”
This has been updated with additional reports.
