North Korea's War Aid to Russia Estimated at Billions of Dollars

According to a new report published by the international financial analyst Bloomberg agency in March last year, North Korea is currently providing significant military assistance to the Russian Federation during the ongoing Ukraine war. This was reported by Zamin.uz.

The value of this aid is estimated to range from approximately 7.67 billion dollars to 14.4 billion dollars. These calculations were conducted by the National Security Strategy Institute of South Korea, with the research covering the period from August 2023 to December of the following year.

Experts explain the large discrepancy in value by the lack of complete information about the exact types of ammunition and military equipment and the volume delivered. The report emphasizes that Russia is compensating North Korea's debts mainly through modern military technologies and high-precision special components, which are difficult to detect via satellites.

According to reports, such precise equipment accounts for nearly seventy-eight to eighty-seven percent of the total compensation. These figures are slightly lower than earlier estimates provided by the Korea Defense Analysis Institute, which at that time considered North Korea's benefit from supporting Russia to be close to hundreds of millions of dollars.

Military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang was further strengthened after Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un signed a strategic partnership agreement during the Russian leader's first official visit to North Korea in thirty years in 2024. According to this agreement, if either of the two countries faces an armed attack, both parties are obliged to provide military assistance to each other.

The report also notes that the first major arms deliveries began in August 2023, and by mid-October last year, fifteen hundred special forces soldiers from North Korea had arrived in Vladivostok. According to data published by the South Korean central bank, North Korea's economy grew by 3.7 percent last year, marking the fastest pace observed since 2016.

The country's nominal gross national income amounted to approximately 44.4 trillion won, which is about 1.7 percent of South Korea's level. This growth is assessed to have resulted from the expansion of the country's military and economic relations with foreign partners.