Putin is 'scrounging around' for low-quality weapons by doing a deal with North Korea, US official says

• A State Department spokesman mocked Vladimir Putin for seeking weapons from North Korea.
• Putin was "scrounging around" for low-quality weapons in doing the deal, said Matthew Miller.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is "scrounging around" for low quality North Korean weapons amid problems supplying Russian troops in Ukraine, a US State Department official said.

Spokesman Matthew Miller at a briefing with reporters Wednesday discussed Putin's summit this week with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vladivostok.

The Russian president appears to be seeking weapons supplies from North Korea that can be used to attack Ukraine. In exchange, North Korea would seek increased military cooperation and economic support.

Analysts said the North Korean weapons Putin seeks, such as rockets and ammunition, are ageing and inaccurate, but such are Russia's problems supplying front line troops in Ukraine that Putin wants to get hold of them anyway.

"A year and a half ago, Vladimir Putin launched this war thinking he was going to restore the glory of the Russian empire, failed in all of his maximalist, imperialist aims, and now a year and a half later, after losing tens of thousands of Russian soldiers and spending billions and billions of dollars, here he is begging Kim Jong Un for help," Miller said.

"I don't think that, at the beginning of this war, Vladimir Putin would have anticipated that a year and a half in he would have to be scrounging around, including with international pariahs like Kim Jong Un, asking for assistance."

Kim during the summit toured a Cosmodrome and military sites in Russia, hinting at a possible satellite technology deal with Russia. He has offered North Korea's "full and unconditional support" for Russia's "sacred fight" in Ukraine.

The summit has alarmed the US and its regional allies, who are seeking to curtail North Korea's capacity to develop nuclear weapons. North Korea is believed to be seeking satellite technology, an area where it lags behind other regional powers, analysts told Reuters.

At Wednesday's briefing, Miller said that Russia was breaching the North Korean sanctions regime it helped to create as a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

The US says that North Korean satellite launches are in contravention of UN resolutions aimed at curtailing its ballistic missile programs, as they could be used to more accurately target the weapons.

"I would say it is troubling when you see the Russians talking about cooperating with North Korea on programs that would violate UN Security Council resolutions that Russia itself voted for," Miller said.