Sanctions monitoring team's first report details North Korea-Russia military ties

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Sanctions monitoring team's first report details North Korea-Russia military ties

Published: 29 May. 2025, 22:01

LIM JEONG-WON
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hong-kyun, center, former United States Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, left, and former Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Masataka Okano, right, attend a Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team meeting at the government complex in Jongno District, central Seoul on Oct. 16, 2024. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

North Korea has supplied more than 20,000 containers of artillery shells and missiles to support Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to the first report by the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) released Thursday.

The MSMT, led by South Korea, the United States and Japan, with 11 countries participating, was launched in October last year to replace the UN Security Council’s expert panel on sanctions against North Korea.

As part of its duties, it has investigated the illegal military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow.

The first report released Thursday night details the transfer of North Korean and Russian weapons, the dispatch of North Korean troops to Russia and the network used for Pyongyang-Moscow military cooperation.

More than 20,000 containers of military supplies, including shells, ballistic missiles, heavy artillery, anti-tank weapons and anti-tank rockets, were transferred from North Korea to Russia starting in September 2023, according to the report.

Between January and mid-December last year, approximately 9 million shells and artillery shells were transferred 49 times via Russian cargo ships, the report specified. The shells that arrived at Russian Far Eastern ports were moved to ammunition depots in the central and western regions via railroads.

The report also included technology and weapons systems that Russia provided to North Korea as a “compensatory measure.”

The UN Security Council holds a meeting at the UN headquarters in New York on May 28. [AP/YONHAP]

In particular, the MSMT report confirmed that Russia transferred at least one Pantsir-class mobile air defense system combat vehicle to North Korea.

On April 30, North Korea unveiled a new 5,000-ton multipurpose destroyer, the Choe Hyon, which was equipped with an air defense system identical to the Russian Pantsir.

In addition, the MSMT pointed out that Russia provided North Korea with feedback on ballistic missile data and supported work to improve guidance performance.

The report also discussed the reality of a “black network” between North Korea and Russia. The MSMT specifically provided information on aircraft operated by the Russian Armed Forces Transport Aviation Command and the Russian state-run airline 224th Air Squadron used for arms transactions from November to December 2023.

North Korea's 5,000-ton multipurpose destroyer Choe Hyon at Nampo Shipyard is seen on April 25. [YONHAP]

It also pointed out that financial transactions continue through North Korea’s ruble account in South Ossetia, a Russian-backed breakaway region of the Caucasian nation of Georgia.

In June last year, the government independently sanctioned Euromarket, located in South Ossetia, for its alleged involvement in selling Russian refined petroleum to North Korea.

The MSMT report also newly revealed that 8,000 North Korean workers were dispatched to Russia last year alone, despite the UN Security Council resolution banning the dispatch of North Korean workers overseas.

The MSMT observed plans to deploy thousands of additional North Korean workers in the construction, processing, IT and medical sectors in the first half of this year.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un exchange documents during a signing ceremony of the new partnership in Pyongyang, North Korea, on June 19, 2024. [AP/YONHAP]

From December of last year to February this year, an additional 481 North Korean workers, 198 in construction and 283 in textiles, were dispatched to Russia, according to the report.

“This report is a product of our efforts to address the monitoring gap arising from the disbandment of the UN Security Council’s 1718 Committee Panel of Experts in April 2024, which was caused by Russia’s veto in March 2024,” the MSMT member countries said in a joint statement. “The report will assist with the full implementation of UN sanctions by the international community.

“The opportunity for dialogue to reestablish the Panel of Experts as a central element of the UN sanctions framework remains open, provided the panel is restored to the full form it had prior to disbandment,” the statement said. ”With the release of the first MSMT report, we underscore once again our shared determination to fully implement relevant UN Security Council resolutions.”

“We need a process of communicating based on reports to more UN member states,” an official from Seoul’s Foreign Ministry told reporters. “There is room to expand the scale of the MSMT from the current 11 countries.”

BY LIM JEONG-WON [[email protected]]