Reacting to reports North Korea could soon be supplying weapons to Russia for use in the Russo-Ukraine war, the U.S. has given the communist state a shot across the bow.
“Providing weapons to Russia for use on the battlefield to attack grain silos and the heating infrastructure of major cities as we head into winter, to try to conquer territory that belongs to a modern sovereign nation–this is not going to reflect well on North Korea, and they will pay a price for this in the international community,” U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters at a Tuesday, September 5th press briefing at the White House.
“We have continued to squeeze Russia’s defense industrial base,” Sullivan said, and Moscow is now “looking to whatever source they can find” for goods like ammunition.“ We will continue to call on North Korea to abide by its public commitments not to supply weapons to Russia that will end up killing Ukrainians,” he added.
North Korea—a long-time pariah state—and Russia have been engaged in arms negotiations for a while, according to U.S. intelligence agencies.
Late last month, National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said these were “actively advancing.”
While the U.S. has repeatedly called on North Korea to stop the negotiations, both Moscow and Pyongyang have, at least officially, denied their existence.
Washington further believes North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will travel to Russia this month to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Kim rarely travels abroad and has not been seen outside of North Korea in over four years. For his meeting with Putin, the North Korean dictator is expected to travel in an armored train to Vladivostok, which lies close to the North Korean border.
Their talks, according to the U.S., could include negotiating a possible arms deal, which would grant the Russian military more artillery shells in Ukraine—which the Kremlin, when asked, thus far has chosen not to comment on.
Some Western commentators suspect military hardware will not be all North Korea might provide Russia with.
Speaking to the Flemish radio station, Radio 1, professor of Korean studies at Leiden University Remco Breuker said:
If the two leaders want to meet, there must be more to it. Therefore, I think the plan from the beginning of this year will be back on the table, where North Korea will supply people to Russia. There was talk then of 50,000 workers who would undertake reconstruction work in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. That was put on hold by the Ukrainian counteroffensive, but may now be once more on the table.
According to Breuker, “construction workers in North Korea are often also military personnel, who due to conscription sometimes remain in the army for ten years. I cannot imagine that it will not be talked about.”
Though he could not tell whether these North Korean forces, if deployed, would make much difference strategically, he thought it at least politically “would help Putin enormously if fewer Russians died,” since “few would shed a tear” if “1,000 North Koreans would die each day.”
For North Korea, he added, it is also an opportunity to make money, since “at the end of the day, these are mercenaries,” who would “gain combat experience to boot.”
