<p >New footage from training grounds in Russia has shown that Russian Army personnel are now training to operate North Korean supplied 140mm mortars, reflecting part of a broader trend towards the widespread adoption of equipment from the East Asian state. The <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/russian-reliance-nkorean-armaments-extreme-60mm-mortars" target="_blank">scale on which</a> a very wide range of North Korean equipment is now being used has raised the possibility that the Russian Army will rely on it heavily not only for operations in the Ukrainian theatre, but also more widely, including for units deployed near the country’s borders with NATO members and defending key cities and military facilities in the interior. The magnitude of the procurements being made means it is likely that North Korean armaments will continue to be used by the Russian Armed Forces on a significant scale well into the 2030s and beyond. The publication of footage of personnel training to use 140mm mortars occurred less than a week after footage from the frontlines in the Ukrainian theatre confirmed that Russian Army regular units have been equipped with North Korean 60mm mortars for combat operations. 60mm mortars are standard equipment in light infantry battalions in the Korean People’s Army (KPA).</p><p ><img src="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/m/articles/2025/06/08/article_68453d6742b446_43186230.jpg" title="North Korean 60mm Mortar Used by Russian Frontline Units"></p><p >Although the Soviet Union retained stockpiles of equipment for its&nbsp;ground forces&nbsp;that dwarfed those of its small eastern neighbour throughout the Cold War, the severe decline of the Russian Army from 1992 left it with a very small fraction of Soviet era equipment in service. The extreme contraction of the defence sector, mass scrapping of Soviet equipment, and poor storage conditions for much of the equipment that remained, has seriously hindered the Russian Army’s ability to wage a prolonged war in the Ukrainian theatre without relying on imported equipment. As early as mid-2022, shortages of military equipment reportedly led Wagner Group military contractors to rely on armaments procured from North Korea. Reliance on Korean armaments increased significantly from 2023, and began to include sophisticated weaponry that in many cases outperformed its Russian-produced counterparts. A notable examples is the <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/nkorean-bulsae4-antitank-takes-out-ukraine-artillery-kursk" >Bulsae-4 anti tank missile system</a>&nbsp;which was&nbsp;<a href="https://thediplomat.com/2024/08/north-korea-closes-russias-anti-tank-missile-gap-with-ukraine/" >first seen in use</a>&nbsp;in the theatre in August 2024, and introduced a very long 10 kilometre range and top attack capability previously not seen on Russian systems.&nbsp;</p><p ><img src="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/m/articles/2025/06/08/article_68458a3b5bb5c0_30109937.png" title="North Korean 170mm Self-Propelled Howitzers Being Transported in Russia in 2024"></p><p >North Korean armaments have been prized not only for their often highly advanced capabilities, but also for the sheer quantities in which they have been available, with the country by the end of 2024 estimated to have dispatched&nbsp;<a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/nkorean-artillery-saved-russia-6million" >over 6 million artillery rounds</a>&nbsp;to Russia. The country’s value as a supplier stems from the fact that its active peacetime forces far outnumbered Russia’s own in many areas, with its artillery forces in particular being several times as large. It is also a result of both the far larger stockpiles which the Korean People’s Army retains, and the much greater productive capacities of the North Korean defence sector. The country was estimated to have shipped 4-6 million shells to Russia in 2024 alone, where Russian industry could only produce up to 2.3 million that year. By the second quarter of 2025, nearly half of artillery rounds used by the Russian Army were of North Korean origin, with many Russian artillery units having come to rely almost entirely on ammunition supplied by North Korea. By then at least six Russian Army artillery units sourced between 50 and 100 percent of their munitions from the country.&nbsp;These supplies have been supplemented by the dispatch of Korean People’s Army units, including 170mm self-propelled artillery, to <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/russia-details-nkorea-role-repelling-kursk" target="_blank">support the Russian Army</a> on the frontlines from late 2024.</p>
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