russia gives North Korea million barrels of oil for weapons and troops
russia has supplied North Korea with more than a million barrels of oil since March this year, the BBC reports.
Main points of the article:
▫️ The oil serves as payment for the weapons and troops Pyongyang has sent to moscow to support its war in Ukraine.
▫️ Satellite images reveal that North Korean tankers have docked at an oil terminal in russia’s Far East 43 times over the past eight months.
▫️ These shipments violate UN sanctions that limit oil sales to North Korea to 500,000 barrels annually, far below the DPRK’s requirements.
▫️ Half of the shipments were carried out by vessels under UN sanctions, which should have been confiscated upon entering russian waters.
▫️ But in March 2024, three weeks after the first recorded oil transfer, russia used its veto in the UN Security Council to disband the group monitoring sanctions violations.
▫️ This oil supply provides North Korea with a level of stability it has not experienced since sanctions were implemented.
▫️ To sustain its war in Ukraine, russia is increasingly reliant on North Korea for troops and weapons in exchange for oil.
By collaborating in this way, the two authoritarian regimes fulfill each other’s needs: russia gains resources to maintain its aggression, while North Korea addresses its critical oil shortages.
This suggests that the dangerous alliance between russia and the DPRK is only deepening, allowing both regimes to use each other to survive in the face of growing international pressure.
