South Korea’s spy agency says North Korea shipped more than a million artillery shells to Russia

By KIM TONG-HYUNG
Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea has likely sent more than a million artillery shells to Russia since August to help fuel Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine. That’s according to a lawmaker who attended a closed-door audit meeting Wednesday with South Korea’s top spy agency. North Korea and Russia have been actively boosting the visibility of their partnership in the face of separate, deepening confrontations with the United States. Their diplomacy has triggered concerns about an arms arrangement in which North Korea supplies Russia with badly needed munitions in exchange for advanced Russian technologies that would strengthen Kim’s nuclear-armed military. Both Pyongyang and Moscow have denied claims by the United States and South Korea that the North has been transferring arms to Russia.