June 7, 2025: After decades of delays, North Korea is trying to upgrade its navy. This includes replacing 76 submarines from the 1960s and 80s with a dozen or more Chinese models, some of which can be equipped with ballistic missiles. North Korea is building these Type 33 subs with some Chinese components. In April the first of several 4,000-ton destroyers was launched. The second destroyer of this class was damaged while under construction and may be a total loss. This was a disaster as the ship capsized and sank at the dock. North Korean leader Ki m Jong Un was furious because North Korea had no dry docks to hold damaged ships during repairs. North Korea is also building a nuclear powered submarine carrying ballistic missiles. This will not be successful unless they get more technical help from Russia or China. Equipping subs with nuclear power is very difficult and both China and Russia took decades to get it right. The rest of the North Korean navy consists of ten elderly frigates and corvettes. Another one of these was converted into a mine sweeper. The remainder of the fleet consists of about a hundred patrol and missile boats, most of them built in the 1970s and 80s. Few are currently seaworthy. Similar situation with over 2,000 amphibious ships and boats.

The North Korean army has profited from its involvement in the Ukraine War. As a longtime ally of Russia, North Korea responded when Russia needed help and provided weapons and munitions. Eventually troops were sent to fight in Ukraine. North Korean support began in 2022 when they supplied Russia with 152mm shells. As a reward, they wanted access to Russian military technologies, and assistance in countering economic sanctions.

North Korea currently has one of the world’s largest armies with over a million soldiers, few of whom do anything except serve as slave labor for superior officers. North Korea has not been directly involved in any major wars since the Korean War ended in 1955. Lack of battlefield experience is a major concern when facing South Korea’s more technologically advanced military. In Ukraine North Korean soldiers are learning the realities of modern drone warfare first-hand. That included learning how to shoot down drones. These soldiers are young, motivated, disciplined, physically fit, and well-trained. Russia pays North Korea $2,000 per soldier each month.

The real prize for North Korea was access to advanced Russian military technology. North Korea received support in increasing its anti-aircraft, submarine, and missile capabilities. Ukraine was a valuable testing ground for North Korea to assess the effectiveness of the weapons it supplied to Russia. Now North Korea can improve the quality of its own domestic arms industry and adapt future output to the realities of the modern battlefield. Troops who survive their time on the Ukrainian front lines are expected to return home and become instructors, sharing their knowledge of modern warfare with colleagues. North Korea’s participation in the Ukraine War is less about supporting Russia's needs and more about improving the North Korean military.

In the short term, the presence of North Korean soldiers allowed Russia to overcome growing manpower shortages. At the time Russia was losing tens of thousands of troops each month. For the first time in decades, the North Korean army is gaining real military experience and that makes North Korea more capable of waging war against South Korea or Japan.

In 2023 North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with Russian leader Vladimir Putin to discuss trade issues related to the Ukraine War. Russia needed more munitions, as in artillery shells and unguided artillery rockets. North Korea could also supply rifle and machine-gun ammunition, but Putin was most interested in the artillery munitions, which Russian troops did not have enough of in Ukraine and Russia could not produce enough to meet the demand.

In return North Korea wanted technology related to advanced nuclear weapons. Russia was able to send more food, but the nuclear technology was another matter. North Korea uses its primitive nuclear weapons to threaten South Korea and Japan. North Korea is militarily belligerent but has relatively primitive military capabilities compared to South Korea, Japan and the United States.

China has long refused to supply North Korea with this kind of assistance, fearing that North Korea would use it carelessly and recklessly. China disapproves of Russia providing this assistance to North Korea. As a major economic trading partner with Russia, Putin cannot ignore the Chinese concerns. In the long-term Russia needs China more than North Korea, but in the short-term Russia needs more artillery ammunition, which North Korea will supply but China won’t.

Russia also needed replacements for artillery systems lost since early 2022. This included 5,300 mortars and howitzers as well as 729 MLRS rocket systems. Russia still had reserves of artillery weapons and is refurbishing them as quickly as it can. Munitions for these weapons is another matter. The 122mm and 152mm howitzers are firing so many shells that some of them have worn out their barrels and need replacements. North Korea had a lot of artillery compatible with Russian guns, but money shortages delayed needed refurbishments of these weapons, and access to refurbishment services is something North Korea will trade artillery munitions for. Russia can provide more food as well as assistance with refurbishing North Korea’s elderly howitzers.

What Russia needs most is artillery munitions. Quantities were limited by how much Russia could transport over the Trans-Siberian rail line. The trip from North Korea to southern Russia takes about 10 days. Sending the munitions by sea was too risky, because of energetic NATO sanctions enforcement and the long distances the ships would have to travel, especially because these ammo vessels won’t be allowed to use the Panama or Suez canals. The trip involved leaving from a Russian or North Korean Pacific Coast port and traveling around southern Africa or South America to reach a Russian port in northwest Russia. Yet another problem is the Ukrainian effort to damage portions of the Trans-Siberian rail line. In 2023 there were at least six acts of sabotage, mainly signal or rail switching equipment. There was much more of this in 2024 and that forced Russia to increase security in areas where the Ukrainian or pro-Ukraine Russian saboteurs were operating. There are millions of ethnic Ukrainians living in Russia, far too many for Russia to monitor. There were also many pro-Ukraine Russians who were against the war.