Russia Could Soon Receive More Weapons From North Korea, Analysts Say

Maritime shipments of North Korean weapons to Russia appear to have resumed after a monthlong pause.

Satellite imagery appears to show Russia-flagged cargo ships return to the North Korean city of Rason, which it and three other U.S.-sanctioned vessels have visited dozens of times since last summer to take on suspected war materiel destined for the Ukrainian battlefield, North Korea-focused analyst group NK Pro wrote Monday.

Washington has accused Pyongyang of aiding Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, which reached the two-year mark on February 24.

The Kim Jong Un regime's munitions factories have been running at full capacity, with more than 6,700 containers carrying millions of munitions believed to have been shipped to Russia in exchange for essential resources like food, according to South Korean defense authorities.

Newsweek reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry and North Korean Embassy in China with written requests for comment.

Sunday marked the first time since February 12 that near-daily satellite surveillance imagery captured a ship at either port.

Medium-resolution photos provided to NK Pro by Planet Labs appear to show cranes removing containers from a vessel matching the description of the Lady R that was docked at Rason Port's Pier 1, where the Russian ships have in the past offloaded cargo before being loaded at Pier 2.

Items believed to be containers earmarked for export began accumulating at Pier 2 in the two days before the suspected Russian vessel arrived, which is consistent with past shipments.

Newsweek could not independently confirm the ship in question was the Lady R.

Past analysis traced the Lady R to Russia's Vostochny, where it was loaded with containers early last month, then to waters east of country's far-eastern port city of Vladivostok. There the ship remained until it disappeared between March 7 and 9, just before its alleged reappearance at Rason.

Russia is already expanding its own munitions production to maintain its ground operations in Ukraine. Despite the expansion, fluctuating shortages, especially of artillery ammunition like 152-millimeter shells, challenging Russia's long-term military effectiveness in the conflict.

Ukrainian defense intelligence agency Main Intelligence Directorate, also known as GUR, estimated last month that Russia had imported some 1.5 million artillery shells from its reclusive neighbor.

"But these munitions are from the 70s and 80s. Half of them do not function, and the rest require either restoration or inspection before use," the agency's No. 2 said.

Pyongyang has been signaling strengthened ties with Moscow while shelving attempts to lower the temperature on the Korean Peninsula, where North-South relations are at their most unstable in decades.

On Tuesday, North Korea's state-owned Korean Central News Agency announced the visit of a Russian Ministry of Culture delegation led by Vice Minister Andrei Malyshev to mark the 75th anniversary of an economic and cultural cooperation agreement between North Korea and the then-Soviet Union.