Putin had to go ‘cap in hand’ to beg North Korea for weapons, says the UK’s defense secretary

• North Korea might be supplying Russia with ballistic missiles.

• But those weapon shipments didn’t come easy, says UK defense secretary Grant Shapps.

• Shapps said Putin had to go “cap in hand” to ask North Korea for weapons.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had to beg North Korea to supply them with weapons for the Ukraine war, the UK defense secretary said on Friday.

“The world has turned its back on Russia, forcing Putin into the humiliation of going cap in hand to North Korea to keep his illegal invasion going,” Grant Shapps wrote on X.

The White House said on Thursday that North Korea had “recently provided Russia with ballistic missile launchers and several dozen ballistic missiles.”

“This is a significant and concerning escalation in the DPRK’s support for Russia,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said at a press conference.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had declared his support for Putin’s “sacred fight” with the West when they met in September, per Reuters.

“Now Russia has risen to the sacred fight to protect its sovereignty and security against the hegemonic forces that oppose Russia,” Kim said then. “And now we want to further develop the relationship.”

“We will always support the decisions of President Putin and the Russian leadership,” Kim continued.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has seen it struggle under the weight of crippling sanctions from the West. A shortage of arms has also caused Russia to turn to countries like North Korea and Iran for weapons.

In October, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said in an intelligence dispatch that North Korea could “become one of Russia’s most significant foreign arms suppliers, alongside Iran and Belarus.”

Representatives for Russia’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.

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