Why North Korean Military Support is Vital For Russia’s Security: New Study Reveals Key Details

Since early 2022 when it became increasingly apparent that conventional ground forces supplies such as artillery rounds, tank shells and anti-tank missiles would be key to determining the outcome of the Russian-Ukrainian War, speculation quickly grew that Russia could look to its neighbour North Korea to help seriously enhance its combat potential. While the first reports of North Korean<a href=" target="_blank"> arms transfers</a> to the country would <a href=" target="_blank">emerge</a> in the second half of that year, the scale of supplies has grown considerably, with a major landmark in January 2024 being the confirmed acquisition and use of North Korean ballistic missiles on a large scale by Russian forces. Providing a detailed assessment of North Korea’s role in the Russian-Ukrainian War, and the war’s significance in the broader context of Pyongyang’s 75 year long conflict with the Western world, scholar A. B. Abrams’ new book Surviving the Unipolar Era: North Korea's 35 Year Standoff with the United States contains a range of valuable insights.&nbsp;<img src=" title="North Korean KN-23B: Currently Russia`s Longest Ranged Tactical Ballistic Missile">Abrams’ new book answers the primary question of how North Korea survived an era from 1989 when, with the Cold War over, hostile Western countries intent on its destruction gained undisputed dominance over global order and sought to exert maximum pressure to end the country’s existence. In assessing this, the major improvements in North Korea’s relations with Russia are among the developments that the scholar observes herald an end to Pyongyang’s post-Cold War isolation, as the West’s ability to pressure states across the world to shun the country gradually diminishes. Abrams notably places North Korea’s support for the Russian war effort in a new context, namely that of <a href=" target="_blank">major Western personnel contributions</a> to the Ukrainian war effort which have been <a href=" target="_blank">central to the country’s ability</a> to sustain the war past its initial months, to highlight that North Korean contributions provide a means of countering its Western Bloc adversaries directly.&nbsp;Abrams further places North Korean contributions in the context of its long history of supporting countries at war with Western powers, including the dispatch of a large number of fighter pilots to fight in the Vietnam War, and the involvement of pilots, tank crews and other personnel in multiple Middle Eastern conflicts such as the War of Attrition, Yom Kippur War and Lebanon War. He posits that material and manpower contributions to the Russian war effort are thus wholly in line wit Pyongyang’s history of bolstering Western adversaries, as part of an understanding that the global conflict between the West and its adversaries has significant implications for the country’s own security.&nbsp;<img src=" title="Launch of North Korean Bulsae-4 – Russia`s First Non Line of Sight ATGM">While North Korea stands out for the degree of support it has provided the Russian war effort, in Surviving the Unipolar Era Abrams highlights the factors which allow the small East Asian state to play such a pivotal role in the conflict. He observes the fact often overlooked by other analysts that North Korea’s artillery forces are by far the largest in the world, with its stockpiles and production capacities thought to be proportionally great. In a war where artillery has been identified from the outset as<a href=" target="_blank"> playing a very central role</a>, this made North Korea the most ideal supplier. Regarding the country’s surpassing of Russia its artillery forces after the Soviet Union disintegrated, Abrams observes (pp.358-359):&nbsp;“Where in the final year of the Cold War, 1989, the Soviet Army had fielded 1184% as much towed artillery as North Korea, 350% as much self-propelled artillery and 284% as much rocket artillery, by contrast in 2021 North Korea at a conservative estimate fielded 412% as much towed and self-propelled artillery and 625% as much rocket artillery as the Russian Army did.53 This reflected the extent to which Russian forces had contracted, and that to which the KPA [Korean People’s Army] had sustained vast conventional ground capabilities past the Cold War era. The extreme contraction of Russia’s frontline forces and stockpiles, its defence sector and its general military readiness resulted in a very different balance of power between the two states, which yielded dividends for Pyongyang as its neighbour came to depend on it heavily.”&nbsp;<img src=" title="North Korean 170mm Artillery During Exercises">Abrams’ work provides a detailed assessment of the future trajectories in the conflict between North Korea and the United States, with significant attention devoted to how Moscow’s war with Kiev and its Western allies provides significant opportunities for Pyongyang to further strengthen its position, including through greater access to Russian markets for a range of exports, and the securing of access to valuable defence and other technologies. He highlights, however, that the balance of power between North Korea and Russia has changed significantly since the Soviet era, allowing the two to form a far more equal relationship today – albeit one in which Russia has much less to offer its neighbour than the Soviet Union did in its time. As North Korea’s role in the conflict is set to continue to expand, with new Korean equipment ranging from firearms to <a href=" target="_blank">170mm howitzers</a> entering the war zone, Western Bloc interests are expected to be set back significantly not only in Eastern Europe, but also on the Korean Peninsula as the north’s equipment and personnel are combat tested, its economy boosted, its defence sector invigorated, and its international isolation subsided. For Russia, which has seen all but one of its former European allies absorbed into NATO, and its primary strategic partners in the Arab world <a href=" target="_blank">devastated</a> by <a href=" target="_blank">Western assaults</a>, North Korea remains one of the few of Moscow’s former partners that it can continue to heavily depend on.&nbsp;Note: This content was not sponsored. Surviving the Unipolar Era is available to purchase from the publisher at a 30 percent discount <a href=" target="_blank">here</a> using the following code:&nbsp;QEN8FNGX.

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