North Korea Earns Billions Through Arms Deals and Troop Deployments to Russia

North Korea is reportedly receiving financial support, diplomatic leverage, oil, and food for sending its troops to fight against Ukraine, The New York Times reports.

According to Olena Guseinova, a researcher at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, North Korea has generated up to $5.5 billion through arms deals with Russia.

In an October report, she also estimated that the deployment of troops could bring North Korea up to $572 million annually—a significant figure by the country's standards. For comparison, North Korea's official exports totaled only $330 million last year.

“Mr. Kim is receiving billions of dollars worth of food, oil, cash and advanced weapons systems from Russia that will help his regime endure international sanctions and upgrade its conventional armed forces,“ the NYT cited analysts, adding that neither Russia nor North Korea has revealed how Moscow was paying Pyongyang.

According to The New York Times, North Korea has supplied Russia with weapons in 20,000 shipping containers. These shipments reportedly include millions of artillery shells, newly developed ballistic missiles, multiple rocket launch systems, and long-range howitzers.

Previously, on November 3, Wi Sung-lac, Seoul's former ambassador to Russia, stated that North Korea is receiving financial compensation, food supplies, and advanced space technology from Russia in exchange for supporting its war against Ukraine.

At the beginning of November, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that 11,000 North Korean soldiers were present on Russian territory near the Ukrainian border, specifically in the Kursk region.

On December 14, Zelenskyy confirmed that Russia had deployed North Korean soldiers for the first time to attack Ukrainian positions in Russia’s Kursk region.