Russia resumed oil exports to North Korea late last year as the isolated regime’s deepening ties drew U.S. warnings that Pyongyang planned to supply more weapons to support Vladimir Putin’s war effort in Ukraine, according to the United Nations.
Data released by the United Nations this week showed that Russia supplied North Korea with 67,300 barrels of refined oil between December 2022 and April 2023, the first delivery record since September 2020.
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has sought to curry favor with Putin since Russia invaded Ukraine, with the leaders offering each other material and political aid.
In a statement marking Russia’s National Day on Monday, Kim pledged “full support” for Putin and called on the two countries to “strengthen strategic cooperation,” according to North Korea’s state news agency.
Kim added that he “shakes hands firmly with the Russian president, which is in line with the common aspirations of the two peoples.”
Russia’s transshipments to North Korea account for only a fraction of its exports, which before the Ukraine war amounted to as much as 8 million barrels a day, including crude oil and refined fuels.
But the trade is indicative of a reciprocal effort to foster closer ties between Moscow and Pyongyang, which was quick to back an invasion of Ukraine last February and was one of four countries, besides Russia, to oppose a U.N. General Assembly resolution condemning Ukraine. war.
The U.S. State Department this week expressed concern over North Korea’s “plans to supply Russia with additional military equipment.”
It said the United States had confirmed that North Korea had completed the delivery of infantry rockets and missiles to the Wagner Group, a private military company linked to the Kremlin.
Buying any weapons from North Korea would violate U.N. resolutions, which Russia has signed on to as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.
After North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test in 2017, the UN Security Council capped annual refined oil shipments to North Korea at 500,000 barrels, well below the country’s energy needs.
All transfers must be reported to U.N. sanctions committees, but only a fraction are in practice, and North Korea is known to evade sanctions through illegal ship-to-ship transfers.
U.N. data also showed that China has been supplying North Korea with a steady supply of refined products throughout the pandemic, delivering 35,669 barrels in January and February this year.
North Korean exports to China also hit a five-year high in April, according to Chinese customs data, suggesting that Pyongyang has eased strict border restrictions imposed in early 2020. Russia’s oil trade with North Korea dropped to zero in October. That year, according to United Nations figures.
Western diplomats worry that increased cross-border trade with Russia and China will further strengthen Kim Jong-un’s regime as it makes steady progress in developing a nuclear weapons program.
Moscow and Beijing have repeatedly blocked a U.S.-led Security Council resolution condemning Pyongyang’s ballistic missile program, most recently after a failed launch of a military spy satellite late last month.
Additional reporting by David Sheppard in London