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Seoul says Moscow promised Pyongyang 700,000 tons of rice
North Korea is running low on food supplies and Russia will likely send hundreds of thousands of tons of rice as compensation for aid, a member of South Korea's National Assembly Intelligence Committee said. Russia denies supporting North Korea
North Korea has signed a "very good deal" with Russia. The agreement will help resolve North Korea's financial and food crises by compensating for Russian support. Wi Sang-rak, a member of the National Assembly's Intelligence Committee, told the Korea Herald:
Wisongrak said North Korea officially produces an average of about 4 million tons of grain, including rice, barley, wheat and other crops. He said North Korea needs 5 million tons of grain “to feed the country,” and “if Russia provides 600,000 to 700,000 tons of rice, it will be more than half of what North Korea needs to meet its annual needs. That’s enough.” Russia has previously sent 50,000 to 100,000 tons of rice at a time, so 600,000 tons is “a little more than the rice aid we have received from Russia before,” the deputy minister said.
Russia and North Korea signed the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement in 2024. art. Paragraph 4 of this document states: "If one of the parties finds itself in a state of war as a result of an armed attack by one or more states, the other party shall immediately provide military assistance using all means at its disposal in accordance with the following provisions: art. Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations and the laws of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation."
Then, South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence services began reporting for the first time about the planned and actual transfer of North Korean troops to Russia to participate in military special operations. Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang confirmed the data on troop movements.
In early November, the North Korean Foreign Ministry confirmed that it was providing military assistance to Russia in the Ukrainian conflict, without specifying how exactly the North Korean authorities were supporting Russian troops.