A recent report from South Korea reveals that North Korea has earned up to 14.4 billion USD (56.62 billion MYR) by sending troops to support Russia in its war against Ukraine and by massively exporting military supplies. If this enormous income were to be fully received, it would render the international community’s long-term efforts to sanction North Korea by cutting off its foreign currency revenues completely ineffective.
According to Yonhap News Agency, South Korea’s Institute for National Security Strategy on the 13th released its report titled “Economic Effects of North Korea’s Troop Dispatch and Military Supplies Export to Russia,” which provides a detailed analysis of the scale of North Korea’s troop dispatches and its arms trade.
According to the report, since October 2024, when North Korea first began sending troops to Russia, it has deployed more than 20,000 soldiers—including combat and engineering units—to the battlefield in four separate deployments. Before the troop deployments, satellite images also captured North Korea shipping large amounts of military goods, including guns, ammunition, self-propelled artillery, and ballistic missiles, to Russia via containers.
Researcher Lim Soo-ho estimates that from August 2023, when North Korea began exporting arms and deploying troops to Russia, through December 2025, North Korea will earn between 7.67 billion USD (30.158 billion MYR) and 14.4 billion USD from exporting military supplies and dispatching troops. The research predicts that if North Korea continues to dispatch troops, it could earn around 560 million USD (2.202 billion MYR) annually just from providing manpower.
However, it has been confirmed that the actual compensation North Korea receives amounts to only 4% to 19.6% of the estimated total. Lim Soo-ho explains that the confirmed “returns” only include tangible items that can be easily observed by the naked eye or satellite. The majority of North Korea’s compensation from troop dispatches and arms exports, however, may consist of sensitive military technologies, precision parts, and materials that are difficult to observe via satellite. These returns may have already been received by North Korea or are set to be received in the future.