Russia sends railcars of luxury horses to North Korea after 'arms help for war'
Trade between Russia and North Korea resumed for the first time since 2020 this week, with Moscow sending 30 thoroughbred horses by train, amid reports that Pyongyang has been covertly supplying it with a “significant” number of artillery shells.
It is not known whether the rail cargo of Orlov Trotters – Russia’s most famous horse and a favourite of North Korean elites – was related to the suspected arms shipment, but the delivery indicates strengthening ties between the two pariah states that would have wider implications for Ukraine and the Indo-Pacific.
The White House announced on Wednesday that North Korea had begun secretly bolstering Russia with weapons shipments to boost dwindling stocks in its war against Ukraine.
“Our information indicates that the DPRK is covertly supplying Russia’s war in Ukraine with a significant number of artillery shells, while obfuscating the real destination of the arms shipments by trying to make it appear as though they’re being sent to countries in the Middle East or North Africa,” said John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council.
He added that the shells were “not going to change the course of the war” and that the US was still monitoring to determine whether they had been received.
Raising risk of civilian casualties
But military analysts have warned that North Korea’s older, unguided artillery would further raise the risk of civilian casualties.
North Korean arms exports are banned under UN Security Council resolutions, and both Moscow and Pyongyang strongly denied the weapons trade when the US made similar accusations in September.
“We have never exported weapons or ammunition to Russia before, and we will not plan to export them,” an official at the North Korean Defence Ministry’s General Bureau of Equipment told state media.
Dr Daniel Pinkston, a Seoul-based lecturer in international relations with Alabama’s Troy University, said, while the arms trade was hard for open-source analysts to verify, the US had been selectively releasing intelligence on Russia before and after the invasion that had turned out to be credible.
“I don’t see any reason for the Biden administration to misrepresent if this were not true,” he said. “I think they would only release this info if they had very high confidence in the validity of the intel analysis.”
It comes as Russia and North Korea restarted train travel for the first time in three years with the unusual shipment of luxury horses.
Pyongyang closed the 800m Tumangang Friendship Bridge, the only land link between the countries, in February 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.
But on Wednesday, Russia’s veterinary service said a train had crossed the border into North Korea carrying horses. The shipment of Orlov Trotters, known for their speed and stamina, included five stallions and 25 mares.
Horses have long been used in state propaganda to boost leader Kim Jong-un’s prowess and prestige as “supreme leader”.
Before the pandemic, North Korea purchased dozens of Russian horses worth tens of thousands of dollars and, in 2003, Moscow gave Orlov horses to Kim’s father Kim Jong-il as a birthday present.
If the recent delivery was linked to artillery shipments, then it would be “small change”, said Dr Pinkston. “But I assume they would use all kinds of creative ways to avoid discovery of arms transactions.”
The 38 North project, which monitors North Korean developments, confirmed that satellite images showed a three-car set of enclosed railcars moved across the border on Friday and was parked next to another train.
“Whether a transfer of material was in progress could not be determined, and the parked locations of these train sets may have been unrelated,” it said.
