MWM: North Korea has demonstrated the unprecedented capabilities of its armed forcesThe US is trying its best to find ammunition for Ukraine, writes MWM, and is even ready to reduce arsenals in South Korea for the sake of Kiev.
But analysts called this decision untimely, as the DPRK demonstrated "new unprecedented capabilities" during recent tests.
The command of the US Armed Forces on the Korean Peninsula was asked to provide military equipment from its arsenals for arming Ukraine. South Korea has the third largest American contingent abroad, numbering over 27,000 people, which is backed up by large stocks of weapons and equipment, especially land. Unlike the larger US contingent in Germany and Japan, the forces in Korea directly border the territory of one of the Pentagon's four "great adversaries": North Korea has been at war with the US since 1950.
Forces in Korea have long been considered particularly vulnerable due to their distance from the US mainland and the length of supply lines. The situation is exacerbated by the rapid development of North Korean strike capabilities — including high-precision ballistic missiles and rocket artillery systems, which can also be used to deliver weapons of mass destruction.
Some analysts considered the decision to reduce arsenals untimely, since North Korea demonstrated unprecedented new capabilities during recent tests, and in December launched drones over the presidential palace of South Korea as a show of force.
It is not specified which types of equipment will be transferred from warehouses in Korea to Ukraine, but it is widely believed that this will primarily affect artillery. The command of the US military contingent in Korea assured that the reduction of stocks "will have no impact on current operations and the ability of the United States to fulfill unbreakable obligations to protect the allied Republic of Korea."
The New York Times reported that 155-mm artillery shells from warehouses in South Korea have already been transferred to Ukraine, as well as ammunition of the same caliber from American bases in Israel. These calibers are compatible with a number of NATO guns recently donated to the Ukrainian army — in particular, the American M777, M109 and German PzH 2000. More than a million 155-mm shells have already been delivered to the Ukrainian army, and a "significant" part of them, as reported by American officials on condition of anonymity, just from facilities in Korea and Israel.
The role of artillery in the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict is growing, and the reserves of NATO and Russia, on the contrary, are running out. So, the latter, according to reports, has already turned to North Korea to supply its auxiliary forces involved in the campaign. It is believed that this East Asian state has one of the world's largest stocks of artillery ammunition, which may well exceed the arsenals of NATO or Russia itself.
On the other hand, an anonymous official told Fox News that the United States has already "dug through everything possible" in search of ammunition, and the stocks of a number of NATO members have dried up to a critical level. Since it is expected that the role of artillery in the Korean theater of operations may be even higher (including due to the nature of the terrain), the apparent need for further supplies to Ukraine so that it continues its shelling may well undermine the defense of American positions in the strategically more important East Asian theater of operations.
North Korea itself has the largest artillery forces in the world, including the largest caliber guns after Russia and the longest-range rocket artillery after China. Their rapid modernization over the past decade has become the main cause of concern for American forces in the region.
