The photos that expose Russia’s oil-for-troops deal with North Korea

Exchange breaches UN sanctions designed to stifle Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme

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Russia appears to have been supplying North Korea with more than a million barrels of oil, as well as air defence missiles, in exchange for thousands of troops and a steady supply of artillery shells.
The Open Source Centre revealed satellite images which it said proved the Kremlin was breaking international sanctions by sending oil to North Korea.
A “dozen different” North Korean tankers have docked at oil terminals in Russia’s far east 43 times since March, according to the imagery shared with the BBC.
The secret transfers violate UN sanctions, which bar countries from selling oil to North Korea in an attempt to prevent the development of its nuclear weapons programme.
“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,” said Joe Byrne from the UK-based Open Source Centre (OSC).
The tankers switch off their tracking devices as they sail to Russia’s Vostochny Port, load up with oil and then return to North Korea.
The OSC estimated the volume of oil transfers to be around a million barrels so far by assessing how low the North Korean tankers sat in the sea after loading up.
North Korea, widely considered a pariah state, is not allowed to buy more than 500,000 barrels of oil on the open market, which is far below what it needs and makes Russian supplies vital for Kim.
“This steady flow of oil gives North Korea a level of stability it hasn’t had since these sanctions were introduced,” Mr Byrne explained.
The UN banned North Korea from buying oil on the open market in 2017 after it test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Oil is critical for Kim’s military. Previously he had been forced to rely on a criminal network to receive supplies. These are often transferred from ship to ship in a risky manoeuvre on the open seas.
Russia has also supplied air defence missile systems to Pyongyang in exchange for sending North Korean troops to support Russia’s war against Ukraine, a top South Korean official said on Friday.
“It has been identified that equipment and anti-aircraft missiles aimed at reinforcing Pyongyang’s vulnerable air defence system have been delivered to North Korea,” Shin Won-sik, Seoul’s top security advisor, told local broadcaster SBS.
Russia also appears to have provided Kim Jong-un with financial and technological support for its space programme following a failed spy satellite launch earlier this year, Mr Shin added, a claim corroborated by Western intelligence.
Analysts fear that Russia may decide to transfer sophisticated weapons technology to enhance North Korea’s nuclear-capable missiles, although they say Moscow is unlikely to do this in the initial stage of Pyongyang’s troop deployment.
Earlier this week, Seoul said Pyongyang had transferred more than 13,000 containers of artillery, missiles and other conventional arms to Russia since August 2023 to replenish its diminishing stock piles.
Kim’s artillery deliveries to Russia are credited with helping Putin’s armies overwhelm Ukrainian forces along the frontline.
Experts say that North Korean artillery shells are often poorly manufactured, the sheer volume has been deadly.
Now, in Russia’s southern Kursk region, an estimated 12,000 North Korean conscripts have joined Moscow’s troops fighting Ukrainian soldiers in their foothold inside Russia.
A high-ranking general has become the first senior North Korean military figure to be wounded fighting against Ukrainian troops, Western officials told the Wall Street Journal.
He is believed to be injured during a Ukrainian attack on a Russian command centre in Kursk using British-made Storm Shadow missiles on Wednesday.
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