• @[email protected]
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      4 months ago

      If NK was smart in making the deal with Russia, they likely got technology transfer and/or embargoed supplies of things they aren’t good at making like electro-optics, guidance systems, raw titanium, oil, missile software, avionics, etc instead of just money. Money they can counterfeit or blackmail the west for, the rest are verboten via sanctions.

      THATS what has South Korea’s jimmies rustled - the big list of potential trade items NK could get, that’d help NK be much more effective if the DMZ gets ‘kinetic’ again. At the very least NK gets battlefield feedback on the supplied hardware.

      • @gravitas_deficiency
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        4 months ago

        Mmm… yes and no.

        Russia could totally supply those… but its own inventories of such components is small and shrinking due to the sanctions and export bans. Russia absolutely doesn’t have any to spare right now. If they’re actually giving NK that stuff, it’s basically robbing Peter to pay Paul.

        • @[email protected]
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          34 months ago

          Agreed, India got shafted on tank deliverables for the same reason- but hence technology transfer. And raw materials are always worthwhile commodities or precursors.

  • @[email protected]
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    -164 months ago

    Lol, Putin must be super desperate if he’s relying on NK to supply them. The US should just invade at this point, because I highly doubt their nukes are still functional.

      • @[email protected]
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        4 months ago

        No, no it’s not. There are plenty of systems in place that could intercept an icbm, and many of those are aimed right at Russia. At the moment the only real hope of MAD would be if Russia could fire a large enough number to overload such systems.

        Nukes and icbms are very expensive to maintain, and the Russian leadership has been embezzling a ton of that money for decades. It wouldn’t be a far stretch, given their losses in the Ukraine, to assume that their nuclear capabilities suffered the same fate.

        Plus, I’m sure the US has a spy satellite network pointed at Russia 24/7 to monitor their nuclear activities.

        The real reason it won’t happen is because Putin has a ton of dirt on the GOP and likely has it on a Deadman switch (the DNC’s emails weren’t the only ones hacked).

    • athos77
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      54 months ago

      Russia is still under sanctions, so it’s probably trading stuff it has to spare - food, fertilizer, and oil/gas, meaning this is something that’s beneficial for them.

      North Korea is probably handing over some of their older weapons (so they don’t have to maintain or dispose of them) as well as some of their newer weapons so that they can get feedback on how those weapons perform in real life combat, so this is something that is wish beneficial for them.

      Since Russia and North Korea share a border, this trade seems almost inevitable.

      • @[email protected]
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        24 months ago

        NK’s logistic chain is definitely compromised, but it’s hard to tell if it is due to piss-poor quality control or “Eldest Son” sabotage.

        Either way, Russia really doesn’t want to be using NK-produced weapons and ammunition.

    • @[email protected]
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      -14 months ago

      Russia is China’s puppet, even if the US could walk into Moscow freely, they would have to deal with Beijing