Seoul says North Korea sent Russia nearly 5 million artillery shells as Putin visit looms

North Korea has sent containers to Russia that could hold nearly 5 million artillery shells and Russian President Vladimir Putin is likely to seek even more when he soon visits Pyongyang, South Korea’s defence minister said.

Shin Wonsik said in an interview that Seoul has detected at least 10,000 shipping containers being sent from North Korea to Russia, which could hold as many as 4.8 million artillery shells of the likes that Putin has used in his bombardment of Ukraine.

“Putin is expected to seek closer security cooperation with North Korea, especially military supplies such as artillery shells that are necessary to seize a chance to win,” Shin said. He also said North Korea has sent dozens of ballistic missiles to help Putin’s attack on his neighbour.

In return for the munitions, Russia has sent to North Korea technology to help in its plans to deploy an array of spy satellites as well as conventional arms such as tanks and aircraft.

Putin is set to visit North Korea as early as next week, the DongA Ilbo newspaper of South Korea has reported. The trip would be his first there since July 2000 and it’s set to stoke concerns from the US and its partners of arms transfers that have helped the Kremlin in its assault on Ukraine in exchange for aid propping up Kim Jong-un’s regime.

With Kyiv now taking delivery of billions of dollars in fresh arms from its US and European partners, the window for a Russian breakthrough is narrowing even as it continues to fire missiles and drones at Ukrainian cities including energy infrastructure.

The munitions sent by North Korea since Putin and Kim met in Russia in September for a meeting that led to stepped up trade between the neighbours have likely far outstripped what has been sent by the