Considering the reported weapons deal between Russia and North Korea the fact that the Russian military is using cheaply made North Korean missiles should not be a suprise:
A man photographs parts of an unidentified missile, which Ukrainian authorities believe to be made in North Korea and was used in a strike in Kharkiv earlier this week, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Jan. 6. Reuters-Yonhap
The Kharkiv region prosecutor’s office provided further evidence on Saturday that Russia attacked Ukraine with missiles supplied by North Korea, showcasing the fragments.
A senior adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday that Russia hit Ukraine this week with missiles supplied by North Korea for the first time during its invasion.
Dmytro Chubenko, spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office, said the missile, one of several that hit the city of Kharkiv on Jan. 2, was visually and technically different from Russian models.
“The production method is not very modern. There are deviations from standard Iskander missiles, which we previously saw during strikes on Kharkiv. This missile is similar to one of the North Korean missiles,” Chubenko told media as he displayed the remnants.
Korea Times
You can read more at the link.
Hopefully the amount of artillery shells shipped from the ROK has not dangerously depleted their own reserves used in response to any contingency with North Korea:
South Korea’s “indirect” provision of 155-mm artillery shells for Ukraine this year has made it a larger supplier of ammunition for the war-ravaged country than all European countries combined, The Washington Post (WP) reported Monday.
In an article on Russia’s protracted war against Ukraine, the U.S. daily explained Washington’s effort to secure munitions from South Korea when the U.S.’ production of shells was barely more than a tenth of some 90,000 shells that Ukraine needed per month.
South Korean law prohibits providing weapons to war zones, but U.S. officials sought to persuade Seoul to provide munitions, estimating that about 330,000 155-mm shells could be transferred by air and sea within 41 days from Korea, according to the WP.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Here is how the Russians moved all the arms they received from North Korea into Russia for further movement to the battlefields of Ukraine:
This image, provided by the U.S. government, shows apparent arms transfers between North Korea and Russia. (Yonhap)
Two Russian ships made at least five round trips between North Korea and Russia, beginning mid-August, in what could be arms transfers, the Washington Post reported Monday, citing satellite imagery.
Based on analysis by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a London-based think tank, the ships have been travelling between the northeastern North Korean port of Najin and a port facility in Dunay in Russia’s Far East between mid-August and Saturday.
The analysis came after the U.S. government revealed Friday that the North shipped more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions to Russia in recent weeks for use in Ukraine, highlighting burgeoning military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
South Korea continues to increase its military engagement with Ukraine by providing some much needed mine clearing vehicles:
Fortunately for Ukraine, South Korean firm Hyundai produces a similar breaching vehicle: the K600. And Seoul just pledged two of the 62-ton vehicles to Kyiv. South Korea will deliver the K600s “as soon as possible,” a government source told Chosun.
Hyundai makes a two-person K600 by removing the turret from a K1 tank—a South Korean variant of the American M-1—and adding a plow, an articulated excavator arm and a device for safely triggering magnetic mines.
The K600 is compatible with two dozer blades, both made by Pearson. A wedge-shape blade works best for digging up and shoving aside buried mines. A straight blade works better for generic engineering tasks: filling in trenches, digging revetments, et cetera.
Hyundai delivered the first K600s to the South Korean army in 2020. The South Korean and Ukrainian governments began discussing a K600 transfer back in May; the South Koreans finally approved the deal this month. There’s one caveat. The Ukrainians must deploy the vehicles only in “humanitarian” roles.
The caveat is meaningless. Arguably any mineclearing operation—even one that occurs while the engineers are under enemy fire—is humanitarian.
Forbes via a reader tip
You can read more at the link.
Hopefully the Russians got a cheap price for these North Korean artillery rounds which are apparently not very reliable:
While North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has supported Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war effort, weapons produced in his country have apparently been turned against Russian forces.
The Financial Times reported Friday that Ukraine has been launching unpredictable, North Korean-made rockets at Russian troops. Ukrainian soldiers manning multiple-launch rocket systems near Bakhmut showed the weapons to the outlet.
A Ukrainian artillery commander told FT his troops don’t like using the weapons, which were made in the 1980s and ’90s, because they can often misfire or fail to explode. One soldier said, “They are very unreliable and do crazy things sometimes.”
Yahoo News
You can read more at the link.
