North Korean authorities are repeatedly denying rumors of arms transactions with Russia, but testimony has emerged that North Korea really did supply conventional weapons to Russia countless times. However, Daily NK’s source says North Korea did not supply weapons to Russia through third countries in the Middle East and Africa, as the US has claimed.
The source, a high-ranking member of the regime, told Daily NK that North Korean authorities directly supplied several kinds of conventional weapons to Russia until recently. He said North Korea directly sent ammunition, grenades, aircraft rounds and other conventional weapons by ship from the port of Najin.
The source said to ensure security, personnel at the Ministry of State Security’s No. 10 checkpoints – tasked with guarding the area around the port of Najin – were completely withdrawn for five or six hours at night, and only a bare minimum of personnel mobilized by the Munitions Industry Department and Ministry of State Security took part in loading the weapons on the ships.
Additionally, the area 10 kilometers around the port was completely locked down for about 12 hours on days ships carrying secret items departed.
However, North Korea supplied Russia with old conventional weapons that have been in the possession of the KPA for decades. It reportedly provided Russia with no recently produced weapons. The source said late North Korean leader Kim Il Sung’s dying instruction was not to export new weapons, and that this is the country’s current weapons export policy.
In November, Daily NK reported that North Korean authorities ordered munitions factories to produce several kinds of ammunition, including grenades, aircraft ammo and anti-aircraft shells in October. The order was aimed at refilling weapon stores that had shrunk due to the exports to Russia.
Below is the full interview with the high-ranking source in North Korea.
Daily NK (DNK): Recently, the US Defense Department said North Korea is supplying a lot of ammunition for Russia’s war in Ukraine, sending it to Russia by disguising the shipments as destined for the Middle East or North Africa. Does North Korea provide Russia with weapons through third countries?
Source: “We can send them directly, so why go through the Middle East or Africa? It seems that either the US intentionally released wrong information that we sent weapons to Russia disguised as shipments to the Middle East or Africa as a smokescreen to verify other intelligence they collected, or they haven’t got a firm basis that we provided weapons to Russia. That’s why we can feign innocence in public about not having ever conducted weapons transactions with Russia.”
DNK: North Korean authorities have denied Washington’s allegations of weapon transactions with Russia countless times. Last month, the vice director of the Military Foreign Affairs of the Ministry of National Defence issued a statement in which he said “we have never had ‘arms dealings’ with Russia.” In late September, the vice director general of the General Bureau of Equipment of the Ministry of National Defence claimed that “we have never exported weapons or ammunition to Russia before and we will not plan to export them.” Did these officials make false statements?
Source: “Basically, the Defense Ministry does not get directly involved in arms exports. Does our nation seem so lax that the vice director of a bureau at the Defense Ministry would know about arms dealings with Russia? We intentionally made cadres at the Defense Ministry make the announcements, but doing things and pushing things without telling them is what happens in this line of work.”
DNK: What is North Korea getting in return for supplying weapons to Russia? Has North Korea directly received foreign currency as payment for the weapons?
Source: “We haven’t received anything in the form of money. Russia’s cash has all dried up, too, because of the war. I understand that at first, Russia offered to either pay in dollars when the war ended, or to pay now in rubles. Russia’s money is worthless, so what would we do with it? And we can’t be certain that Russia will pay in dollars later. So we decided to accept supplies we need right now. The oil, gas and flour now coming from Russia is all the result of the weapon deals.”
DNK: South Korea and the US said they will continue to watch for moves pertaining to illegal deals between North Korea and Russia. Will North Korea continue dealing weapons with Russia despite this?
Source: “We won’t make a sound. Russia is full of US spies, and Russia is too slow footed, so the US is continuing to hear information and poke at us about how we’re dealing weapons with Russia. I’m not exactly certain that we’ll continue dealing with Russia. We do it whenever an order comes down from above.”
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