Mark Esper to Newsmax: NKorea Gets Cash Selling Russia Weapons

Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper told Newsmax Wednesday that North Korea is getting either “hard cash” or energy from Russia in return for selling weapons to them.

“Russia is now going to North Korea to supply it with arms, specifically 155-millimeter ammunition for artillery,” Esper said during “The Record With Greta Van Susteren.”

“It is illegal, illicit, black-market activity — selling things on the black market, collecting cash to generate cash, he said. “And I assume with Russia, it may be more of a barter. In other words, they provide ammunition, and the Russians provide energy.”

Esper said the United States is aware that North Korea has been supplying Russia with rockets and other items for missile systems.

“But, of course, both sides deny it,” he said. “But what the Russians really need now is artillery ammunition.”

The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the U.S. has new intelligence showing Russian President Vladimir Putin trading letters with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un about buying weapons for Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“Following [Russian Defense Minister Sergei] Shoigu’s visit, another group of Russian officials traveled to Pyongyang for follow-on discussions about potential arms deals between the DPRK and Russia,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in the report, using the acronym for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The revelation comes after North Korea launched a ballistic missile toward eastern waters in a test just hours following the flight of a U.S. long-range bomber over the Korean peninsula, the report said.

Esper said North Korea has been engaged in counterfeiting U.S. currency in the past as well as cyberattacks and ransomware “leveraging” to get cash into the country.

“In the past, they’ve been involved in cyberattacks, leveraging ransomware, another type of activities, all kinds of illicit activities, to get hard cash into the country and oftentimes using the labor of the North Korean people,” he said. “The poor North Korean people — using their labor, their hard work to generate the items that they might sell back to China, for example, again to collect hard cash.”

He said that with Russia, however, they may use the weapons to barter for the energy it needs.

Esper did say, however, that he does not think North Korea has the technology yet to miniaturize its nuclear weapons for delivery to the U.S. on a missile.

“The last time they’ve had a test was a few years ago,” Esper said. “There’s been an expectation that there would be a test sometime this year, but they haven’t crossed that threshold yet.

“Clearly, they have nuclear weapons devices. They’ve tested them. The issue is, Can they miniaturize them enough to put them on a long-range ICBM [intercontinental ballistic missile] that they could deliver to the United States? I think the assessment currently by the intelligence community is they are not at that point yet.”