How North Korea is giving Russia an edge in the war on Ukraine

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during a meeting in Wonsan, North Korea July 12.

PHOTO: REUTERS

Without the involvement of North Korea, Russia’s war in Ukraine might have taken a different turn. The infusion of weaponry and troops provided by Mr Kim Jong Un’s regime has helped Russia to repel Ukrainian forces from its soil and keep up the relentless bombardment of Ukrainian towns and cities.

North Korea has likely received military aid in return, increasing the threat posed by the isolated nation to the US and its allies in East Asia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin long treated North Korea with ambivalence, maintaining relations while viewing Pyongyang as a potentially destabilising influence in Russia’s vast backyard. But the alliance they struck up in recent years is proving to be an effective riposte to the sanctions imposed on both nations by Western powers.

The partnership is deepening as a result, with North Korea now providing a significant proportion of the weapons being hurled at Ukrainian towns and cities. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has described the involvement of North Korean soldiers in thwarting a Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk region as a symbol of “invincible brotherhood” between the two nations.

North Korea holds some of the largest stores of artillery shells and rockets that are compatible with the Soviet-era armaments that Russia has been burning