Since March 2024, Russia has delivered over 1 million barrels of oil to North Korea, according to the Open Source Centre's analysis of satellite images, as reported by the BBC Russian Service.
Over the past eight months, analysts tracked more than a dozen North Korean tankers making 43 trips between a Russian oil terminal in the Far East and North Korean ports. Satellite images show these tankers departing Russia empty and returning full.
The first documented trip was on March 7, 2024, seven months after initial reports of North Korea supplying munitions to Russia. The most recent trip occurred on November 5, shortly after reports surfaced that North Korean troops had been deployed to Russia’s Kursk region.
“This steady supply of oil provides North Korea with a level of stability it hasn’t experienced since international sanctions were imposed,” says Joe Byrne, senior analyst at the Open Source Centre, as cited by The Moscow Times.
North Korea remains under strict international sanctions for its nuclear weapons program, limiting its annual oil imports to 500,000 barrels. However, 1 million barrels, or roughly 56,000 tons, is a small amount for Russia, which produces nearly ten times that in a single day.
Earlier reports from The Times, citing Western intelligence, revealed that North Korea sends around 3 million shells annually to Russia—approximately half of the ammunition used by Russian forces in the war against Ukraine.
In October, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that North Korean soldiers were aiding Russia, a claim later confirmed by South Korean intelligence and the Pentagon. Kyiv estimates that up to 12,000 North Korean troops have been sent to Russia.
South Korean intelligence also reported that Moscow pays Pyongyang $2,000 per soldier, a sum equivalent to 83 annual salaries for the average North Korean citizen.
By November, the U.S. State Department reported that most of the North Korean troops deployed to Russia were fighting in the Kursk region.
The New York Times stated that Russia had assembled a 50,000-strong force, including North Koreans, for a counteroffensive in the Kursk area, parts of which have been under Ukrainian control since August.
In June, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited North Korea and signed a strategic partnership agreement with Kim Jong-un. This pact formalizes a military alliance between the two countries. Under Article 4, both nations pledge mutual military support in the event of an attack.
