While North Korea rescues Russia from its Ukrainian quagmire with millions of artillery shells and other munitions, Russia is rescuing the North with massive shipments of food for the North’s hungry people. The closer ties between Moscow and Pyongyang are causing consternation not only at Washington, but Beijing, too.

In a solution to the endemic disease and starvation that’s always threatened North Koreans beyond a privileged elite, Russia is now eclipsing Communist China as the main source of the agricultural products the North craves to live up to the rhetoric of its leader, Kim Jong-un.

“North Korean munitions factories are operating at full capacity to supply weapons to Russia in exchange for much-needed food and other necessities,” the South Korean defense minister, Shin Won-sik, told Korean reporters.  “Food accounts for the largest proportion.” 

Thanks to Russia’s desperation for ammunition, Mr. Shin said that North Korean food prices, after years of price rises, shortages, and suffering are “believed to have stabilized.”

The bond between Russia and North Korea is believed to be causing almost as much distress for Communist China as for Washington. 

Voice of America surmises that China, “dismayed by North Korea’s deepening military cooperation with Russia, could try to keep that relationship from disrupting regional stability for its own benefit rather than Washington’s.”

A senior White House official told VOA, “We are deeply concerned about the growing relationship between Russia and the DPRK and what that might mean for Mr. Kim’s intentions.” The official reportedly said that the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, raised the issue with China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, in view of China’s “influence on Pyongyang.”

At Seoul, Mr. Shin indicated that North Korea’s arms industry may vastly increase its output with Russian assistance. “Certain factories are operating at full capacity,” he said, as they “primarily produce weapons and shells for Russia.”

Satellite images, he said, depict the export of 6,700 containers presumably filled with artillery shells and other matériel since Messrs. Kim and Putin met five months ago.  

That’s enough, South Korea’s Yonhap News says, “to accommodate approximately 3 million rounds of 152 mm artillery shells or 500,000 of 122 mm artillery shells.”

For now, said Mr. Shin, North Korea’s need for food takes precedence over its desire for missile and satellite technology. A North Korean spy satellite “shows no signs of functioning and is merely orbiting without activity,” he said.

Russian food shipments, along with other vital supplies including equipment to repair North Korea’s dilapidated arms factories, are arriving mainly at the port of Najin on the North’s northeastern coast on ships that leave with containers full of arms and ammo for Russian forces.

The research team “Beyond Parallel,” under the aegis of Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, says such shipments “have reportedly supported the transfer of more than 2.5 million rounds of artillery shells and other munitions.”

In addition, says the report, “at least 19 ‘dark vessels,’” or ships eluding detection, “have visited Vostochny Port in Russia to both unload and load containers from the port.” 

“Beyond Parallel” suggests that strategists at Washington consider North Korea’s desire to play Russia against China. “While sanctions remain the tool of choice,” it says, “incentives should also be considered to exploit” North Korea’s “innate paranoia of becoming too reliant on any one party for sustenance.”

The report, by an authoritative analyst of North Korean satellite imagery, Joseph Bermudez, among others, criticizes the emphasis placed on North Korea’s nuclear program compared with its  munitions exports.

While North Korea’s denuclearization remains America’s goal, it says, “stopping North Korea’s munitions transfers should become the proximate priority given its implications for the war in Europe and Indo-Pacific security.”