North Korea Earns $14 Billion Supplying Russia's War Machine

Shells, Missiles, and Boots on the Ground
This is not small-scale arms trading happening in the shadows. North Korea has sent Russia a serious arsenal — artillery shells, rocket launchers, and KN-23 short-range ballistic missiles, among them, all worth billions of dollars combined. And it has not stopped at hardware. About 10,000 North Korean soldiers have been sent to fight on the front lines, with engineers and drone operators also part of the deployment. If current plans hold, that number could climb to 30,000 more.

Soldiers sent to fight are reportedly paid around $2,000 a month. For anyone living inside North Korea's closed economy, that kind of money is genuinely life-changing. But the real prize for many families lies in what happens if their loved one does not come home. The regime labels these deaths as heroic sacrifices, hands the family $10,000, and offers them better housing in Pyongyang. In a country where a decent apartment is a luxury most people will never see, that offer carries enormous weight.

The Economy Is Waking Up
Russia has not just been writing cheques. In return for all the weapons and manpower, Moscow has been sending North Korea hard currency, oil, food, and military technology that Pyongyang could never easily get its hands on otherwise. The impact on North Korea's economy is now measurable. The Bank of South Korea recorded 3.7 percent GDP growth for the North in 2024 — the strongest showing since devastating sanctions were slapped on the regime back in 2016 after its intercontinental missile tests.

Walk through Pyongyang today, and you might notice something that would have looked out of place just a few years ago. People who visited the capital in 2025 came back talking about luxury cars on the streets — a small but telling detail in a city long defined by shortages and tight control. The money is not reaching ordinary people, but it is clearly reaching someone. For Kim Jong-un's government, the partnership with Russia has delivered something sanctions nearly took away entirely — a functioning, growing economy, bankrolled by a war it did not start but has every reason to keep going.