North Korean artillery shells provided to Russia in support of Moscow’s war in Ukraine appear to be “poor” in quality, failing to hit targets and exploding at the wrong time, a report citing a Ukrainian military official showed Tuesday.

The report came amid growing concerns over deepening military cooperation between North Korea and Russia, which has expanded from arms transactions to the deployment of troops confirmed by multiple nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

“Ukraine’s Kharkiv Group of Forces Spokesperson Colonel Yevhenii Romanov stated 60 percent of the 122 millimeter and 152 millimeter artillery ammunition that Russian forces are firing in the Kharkiv direction is from North Korea,” the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War said in a daily report published on Sunday.

“Romanov stated that the North Korean shells are poor quality and do not hit their targets or explode at the right time,” it added.

South Korean experts raised the possibility of the North sending obsolete shells
that have been stored for as long as decades.

“North Korea has stockpiled a large amount of artillery shells for war,” Rep. Yu Yong-weon of the ruling People Power Party said. “The quality issue may have arisen as the North provided shells that date back to the 1970s.”

The South’s defense ministry earlier estimated the North to have shipped some 20,000 containers to Russia as of September, which is enough to carry around 9.4 million 152 mm artillery shells when fully stocked.

The defense ministry also said the North appears to be operating some 200 munitions factories at “full capacity” to produce weapons for Russia.

Source: Yonhap News Agency