Comment: North Koreas ＂Ghost Boat＂ toured to the former Soviet military base Ukr

Source: Bloomberg

Author: Jon Herskovitz

North Korea is close to the Russian border for many years, and now it has gained vitality. Experts say that the arms trade related to the Russian and Ukraine war is booming, and the North Korean economy has been boosted to a certain extent.

From October to December, the Luojin Port Satellite Image shows that there are constant sources of ships in the port, hundreds of containers are loading and unloading goods, and the train on the railway is ready to go.

Since the United States has accused North Korea in early October, it has been accusing North Korea to transport ammunition to Russia, and the port event has accelerated. The image provided by the White House showed that these arms were later transported to thousands of miles of tikhoretsk in a warehouse for Russia for Russia.Battle battlefield use.

The differences between the US Congress and the European Union on military aid are weakening the Ukraine's counterattack capacity. At this time, the number of artillery shells in North Korea is particularly important for the war situation.

Rusi Institute of Security Think Tank Royal Institute (RUSI) reported that "Pyongyang's decision to transport arms large -scale arms has once again highlighted North Korea's serious threat to international security composition.Ten billion US dollars of economic losses. "

North Korea has repeatedly denied allegations about its arms to Russia.

The analysis of satellite data shows that this is not the case.A picture on December 9 seems to show that Angara, a Russian container ship sanctioned by the United States, is unloading in Luojin Port, and a container from North Korea is waiting for the ship at the nearby dock.

Open Nuclear Network Analyst Jaewoo Shin said, "Although the United States has increased sanctions and has made a lot of reports on the Fire Fire trade in the Russia and Russia in the past few months, satellite images show thatThe cargo ship's round -trip activities continue to increase. "

Shin said that although the existing images cannot confirm the nature of the goods, the number of round trips and the transshipment container indicate that Russia and North Korea are undergoing large goods trade, which may include weapons and other military supplies.

At the time of the accelerated trade between North Korea and Russia, the United States has become increasingly uncertain about the military assistance of Kiev. The Pentagon stated that if Congress does not approve additional aid funds, Ukraine will have no money to update weapons on December 30th to update weapons on December 30th to update weaponsEssenceAt present, it is almost impossible to be approved before the end of the year, because most US Congress members are on vacation.

As the war fell into a stalemate, the Kremlin was increasingly confident to strengthen control over the control of eastern and southern Ukraine, and we looked forward to weakening the international community's support for Ukraine.Putin said this month, "When we achieve our goals, peace will naturally come.""

For many American allies, some reasons for the decline in Ukraine's support is that Ukraine's counterattack in spring and summer is lower than the high expectations of the West.

Although satellite images show that the activities of Luojin Port are stable, the ships stopped there seem to have closed the international maritime forwarder, which means that in 180 kilometers from Luojin to Duner (110 miles) from Du Nai (110 miles)These ships became "ghost ships".The documents obtained by the British Think Tank Rusi show that the US Central Love Bureau has determined that the port was the Soviet submarine base during the Cold War.

South Korea ’s National Intelligence Institute told Congress in November that since August, there have been about 10 batches of weapons to Russia from North Korea, of which shells may exceed 1 million.North Korea has some of the world's largest ammunition libraries, most of which are interoperable with the Russian frontline weapons.

extra 1 million cannonball means that Russia can fire about 2,700 shells to Ukraine every day.At the same time, Ukraine is facing difficulties in obtaining ammunition. If the aid of the United States is not guaranteed, there will be more challenges.

weapon expert Joost Oliemans said, "No one can say how many weapons can supply how many weapons can supply North Korea. Once the inventory is exhausted, and North Korea's manufacturing capabilities cannot keep up, weapons delivery may slow down."

Kim Jong -un's assistance from Russia has eased the pressure on sanctions on the expansion of nuclear arsenal over the years, which may make the tense situation of the Korean Peninsula worse.