Mick Hartley

For Ukraine, the problem of North Korean troops boosting the depleted Russian fighting force is obvious enough. For South Korea, it's the question of what North Korea gets in return. 

Former White House senior adviser and CIA veteran Dennis Wilder highlighted the risks associated with North Korea’s potential acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines and ICBM re-entry technology. “If North Korea’s nuclear-powered submarines were to roam the Western Pacific, it would be an enormous problem for all of us.” For South Korea, however, this scenario is more than a headache—it is a serious security threat.

In September last year, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un unveiled a tactical nuclear submarine with underwater strike capabilities and has made it clear that the navy’s nuclear armament is “an urgent task.” While North Korea possesses underwater-launched nuclear missiles, it lacks nuclear-powered submarine technology. If Russia provides North Korea with this technology, it would allow North Korea to hide nuclear missiles in submarines with unlimited underwater capabilities. It would be a disaster for the South.

Kim Jong-un would not send over 10,000 North Korean troops to perilous combat zones for nothing in return. Russian President Vladimir Putin is the one under pressure, facing more than 600,000 casualties from Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. He could agree to Kim’s demands by offering advanced weapons such as nuclear-powered submarines, ICBM re-entry technology, or the latest fighter jets as a compromise. Yet such a decision would signal a deliberate hostility toward South Korea. Should Russia cross this “red line,” South Korea would have no choice but to take emergency countermeasures.

Meanwhile tensions continues to rise, with North Korea's latest ballistic missile launch, and a joint US-South Korean exercise conducting simulated strikes on North Korean targets.

With top-level Russian technology, Pyongyang's huffing and puffing becomes an altogether more worrying prospect.