A North Korean ballistic missile fired last month by the Russian military in Ukraine contained hundreds of components that trace back to companies in the US and Europe, according to a new report.
The findings mark the first public identification of North Korea’s reliance on foreign technology for its missile program and underscore the persistent problem facing the Biden administration as it tries to keep cheap, Western-made microelectronics intended for civilian use from winding up in weapons used by North Korea, Iran and Russia.
The UK-based investigative organization Conflict Armament Research, or CAR, directly examined 290 components from remnants of a North Korean ballistic missile recovered in January from Kharkiv, Ukraine, and found that 75% of the components were designed and sold by companies incorporated in the United States, according to the report shared first with CNN.
How can a country as large as Russia be dependent on a tiny and thoroughly sanctioned country as North Korea? How can NK possibly have anything better than Russia?
It’s not about better, it’s about quantity. Russia fires a shitload of artillery and needs ammo. NK sits on a lot of stockpiles. Plus NK has the old tooling for a lot of the ancient Soviet equipment.
There’s also the fact that China, through NK, can funnel help to Russia. Whether that’s “true” or not. Additionally there isn’t much we can do to NK at this point so they have more to gain by dealing with Russia.
“true”?
Agreed those scare quotes confuse things. I read it as emphasis
I don’t think they’re better than modern Russian stuff but North Korean weapons are probably copies of Soviet ones. I’m guessing Russia is trying to bring some old shit back into service but their domestic military industry doesn’t make the old missiles anymore.
NK is sitting on stockpiles of ammo that works with old Soviet hardware. It’s not that old. It’s more recently produced. It just works with those system.
Russia has lost so much equipment they’re back to using that hardware. Including tanks like the T55. T54/T55s entered production in the early 1950s. Were made for about 30 years with slight variations through.
Pretty easy deal for NK to make. With certainly some benefit coming back to them from Pootin in the trade.
Russia’s army is built around deterring the US from nuking them + special operations against Chechens, North Korea’s army is built around a war of attrition with a country next door that’s armed by the US.
Anything is better than nothing.
In addition to what others have said NK spends about 1/3 of its GDP on its military. It definitely punches above its economic weight when it comes to war.
Short answer: Putin
Long answer: for last 25 years Putin and his oligarchs were destroying Russia.