North Korea Is Making Billions From Russia’s War on Ukraine

North Korea’s involvement in Russia’s war on Ukraine has generated more than $20 billion for its economy so far, according to a recent estimate, and is helping Pyongyang to acquire even more high-tech weapons.

The South’s Korea Institute for Defense Analyses (KIDA) think tank published a report outlining the potential value of North Korea’s military cooperation with Russia as it supports Moscow’s ongoing Ukraine invasion.

The report said the vast majority of the economic benefit to North Korea has been through its supply of munitions to Russia, but it has also benefited from sending thousands of troops to fight against Ukraine and offering technical support.

Troop losses have been heavy, however, and around 4,000 are believed to have died of the 11,000 North Korea has sent. They were mostly fighting in Russia’s Kursk region to fend off a cross-border incursion by Ukrainian forces.

North Korea probably prefers “in-kind and technical assistance” from Russia in exchange for its support, KIDA said, including high-tech weapons that help strengthen its military capabilities and advance its strategic goals.

There is an urgent need to end the Ukraine war and for measures to block Russia-North Korea military cooperation, and a long-term strategy to respond to it once the conflict stops, the report’s authors said.

KIDA’s report chimes with a separate analysis by the Open Source Centre (OSC) and Reuters, who estimate that North Korea had shipped more than 15,800 containers of munitions to Russia between August 2023 and March 2025.

The OSC and Reuters used satellite images and detailed three-dimensional images to make their calculation that 64 shipments by four Russian vessels likely carried between 4.2 million and 5.8 million individual munitions from North Korea.

This is a developing article and more information will be added shortly.