Increased military cooperation between Russia and North Korea could "dramatically" affect the type of security threats emanating from North Korea over the next decade, Pranai Wadi, the White House's senior director for arms control, said in an interview with the Center for Strategic and International Affairs.
Since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow and Pyongyang have significantly increased their military ties. Russia's new-found exile status after the outbreak of full-scale war has forced the country to seek new allies, and North Korea, as a major producer of military equipment and an equally isolated country, has allegedly used the partnership to further its own military goals.
"What we are seeing between Russia and North Korea is an unprecedented level of military cooperation," Wadi said. "And I say unprecedented quite deliberately - we've never seen this before," he added.
"North Korea has supplied Russia with about one million munitions," a spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence said on January 15.
The nature of the relationship is increasingly becoming a two-way street," said US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, in which Russia provides North Korea with advanced military technology and long-range strike capabilities, potentially including ballistic missiles and nuclear capability, in exchange for the missiles and the rockets.
In the short term, this cooperation has already been felt in Ukraine, where Russia is said to have used ballistic missiles supplied by Pyongyang in attacks against the country.
Over the next decade, the impact of the partnership may become increasingly prominent in the Pacific region.
The US has a long-standing military alliance with South Korea and Japan that has historically targeted threats emanating from North Korea. Wadi said the three countries will need to work together to ensure their "extended deterrence" is strong enough to deter North Korea's hostile behavior in the region.
On January 19, North Korea's state-run Central News Agency reported that the country's military had tested an "underwater nuclear weapon system" in response to recent joint military exercises held between the US, Japan and South Korea.
The system said to have been tested is an unmanned attack drone with nuclear capabilities known as the "Haiel". North Korea has previously claimed to have tested the drone.
Envoys from the US, South Korea, and Japan met in Seoul on January 18 and jointly condemned North Korea's military activities and arms trade with Russia.
Earlier, the US and nearly 50 countries called for an immediate end to Pyongyang's arms shipments to Moscow. /BGNES
