If North Korea sold shells at $US1000 ($1487) each, the amount so far provided by Pyongyang would be equal to about 10 per cent of North Korea’s GDP, according to Bloomberg News calculations. That’s a conservative estimate because high demand has driven up prices. The 155mm shells used by NATO forces are priced at about $US3000 each.

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Shin said North Korea has been preparing to test a new type of intermediate-range ballistic missile. It could come as early as this month after Pyongyang conducted two engine tests in November, he said.

South Korea’s ambassador to the UN Hwang Joon-kook told a Security Council meeting on Thursday that Russia’s use of North Korean missiles gave Pyongyang “valuable technical and military insights” about its arms.

“By exporting missiles to Russia, the DPRK uses Ukraine as the test site of its nuclear-capable missiles,” he said.

“Some experts assess that the missiles fired into Ukraine are KN-23s, which the DPRK claims can deliver nuclear warheads,” he added, saying one flew 460km, the distance from a North Korean launch site to South Korean’s city of Pusan.

“From the ROK standpoint, it amounts to a simulated attack.”

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An IRBM is designed to have a range that would be long enough to hit all of Japan and US military facilities in Guam, where the Pentagon says it keeps one of America’s largest munitions depots in the world.

While Biden administration officials said this month they planned to raise the latest developments at the United Nations Security Council, there may be little that Washington can do to stop trade in illicit goods between North Korea and Russia.

Satellite imagery of North Korea’s Najin port taken from October to December shows a steady stream of ships at the facility, hundreds of shipping containers being loaded and unloaded, and rail cars ready to transport goods.

The vessels docking there appear to have turned off international maritime transponders that would reveal their location, as they ply the relatively short route between Najin and Dunay, a former Soviet submarine port about 180kms away, according to a report by the Royal United Services Institute, a British security think tank.

Bloomberg, Reuters