Ukraine’s Intelligence Chief Expects Weapons Trade to Top Putin’s Agenda in North Korea

Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko are meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, on the 29th (local time). / AP Yonhap News

The Ukrainian military intelligence agency predicted that an increase in arms supplies to Russia would be discussed during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to North Korea.

In a broadcast interview on the 30th (local time), Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Ukrainian military intelligence agency (GUR), answered the question, “What do you think will be discussed if President Putin visits North Korea?” with, “Above all, increasing the scale of arms supplies to Russia.”

Budanov predicted that there would be an increase in artillery weapons supplies. He claimed that Russia started using North Korean ammunition last year.

Budanov also mentioned the possibility of Russia transferring missile technology to North Korea, as experts had previously pointed out. He said, “North Korea will do a lot for this technology (missile technology).”

Last September, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited Russia and had a summit with President Putin, raising concerns about arms trade between North Korea and Russia. About this, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently claimed that Russia had received over a million rounds of ammunition. Since then, Putin’s visit to North Korea and the possibility of additional arms trade have been mentioned. He met with North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui, who visited Russia from the 14th to the 18th.

Meanwhile, North Korea denied allegations of supporting ballistic missiles to Russia at the general debate of the UN Disarmament Conference held at the UN Geneva office on the same day. Deputy Ambassador Bang Kwang Hyuk of the North Korean delegation in Geneva said, “There is no transfer of weapons from North Korea to Russia, and there is no need to respond to baseless suspicions manipulated by the United States.” He also said, “As long as the United States, the world’s largest nuclear power, does not abandon its hostile policy towards North Korea, the journey to strengthen our self-defensive nuclear power will not stop and will accelerate according to the principle of strength against strength and head-on confrontation.”

In response, Yoon Sung-mi, a representative of the Korean delegation to the Disarmament Conference in Geneva, said, “It is regrettable that we have to respond to the baseless criticism and sophistry that North Korea has been laying out.” She criticized, “North Korea is constantly trying to distort the cause and result of the situation on the Korean Peninsula, but we all know that North Korea has illegally developed its nuclear and ballistic missile program according to its plan, and there is no such thing as a hostile policy towards North Korea by South Korea and the United States.”