Russia pays in oil to North Korea for supplying troops, weapons to fight Ukraine war: Report

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is sending troops and weapons to Russia not for the sake of his growing friendship with Vladimir Putin, but in exchange for adequate oil supplies from Moscow.

A report by BBC, citing satellite imagery analysis from Open Source Source Centre, a non-profit UK-based research group, said Russia is estimated to have supplied Pyongyang with over a million barrels of oil since March this year.

The report also quoted leading experts and UK Foreign Secretary, David Lammy as saying that the oil is payment for the weapons and troops Pyongyang has sent Moscow to fuel its war in Ukraine.

North Korean ships spotted around Russia’s oil terminal 43 times in 8 months

Over the past eight months, more than a dozen different North Korean oil tankers were spotted at an oil terminal in Russia’s Far East, for a total of 43 times, the BBC report said citing the satellite images which were exclusively shared with them.

Further pictures, taken of the ships at sea, appear to show the tankers arriving empty, and leaving almost full.

The pictures also showed North Korean vessels arriving empty and leaving almost full.

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Interestingly, during all their journeys to Russia’s Vostochny Port, the North Korean-flagged tankers kept their trackers switched off, concealing their movements, the report said.

First Russia-North Korea oil transfer happened on March 7, 2024

As per the report, the first oil transfer documented by the Open Source Centre in a new report, was on 7 March 2024, seven months ahead of the emerging reports stating North Korea was sending weapons to Russia.

The oil shipments continued with North Korea sending almost 11,000 troops and modern weapons to Russia, with the last one recorded on November 5.

“While Kim Jong Un is providing Vladimir Putin with a lifeline to continue his war, Russia is quietly providing North Korea with a lifeline of its own,” Joe Byrne from the Open Source Centre was quoted as saying in the BBC report.

“This steady flow of oil gives North Korea a level of stability it hasn’t had since these sanctions were introduced," Byrne further said.

Russia violating UN sanctions by providing oil to North Korea

With the supplying of oil to North Korea, Russia is violating UN sanctions, which ban countries from selling oil to North Korea, except in small quantities. The restrictions have been imposed to stifle Pyongyang’s economy to prevent it from further developing nuclear weapons.

North Korea is the only country in the world which is not allowed to purchase oil on the open market.

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The number of barrels of refined petroleum that North Korea can receive has been capped at 500,000 annually by the UN, which is way lower than nine million it consumes.

The cap was imposed in 2017, forcing North Korea to buy oil illegally from criminal networks to meet the deficit, including transferring the oil between ships out at sea.

Then why Russia is still supplying oil to North Korea

The report quoted four former members of a UN panel responsible for tracking the sanctions on North Korea as saying that the transfers are a consequence of increasing bond between Russia and North Korea.

“These transfers are fuelling Putin’s war machine – this is oil for missiles, oil for artillery and now oil for soldiers,” Hugh Griffiths, who led the panel from 2014 to 2019, was quoted as saying.

Lammy, meanwhile, highlighted that to keep fighting in Ukraine, “Russia has become increasingly reliant on North Korea for troops and weapons in exchange for oil.”

With limited oil sources after the sanctions, North Korea heavily rely on coal. However, oil is essential for running the country’s military.

Pyongyang needs diesel and petrol to transport missile launchers and troops around the country, run munitions factories and fuel the cars of the elite.