North Korea has sent around 7,000 containers of weapons to Russia in support of Moscow’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, South Korea’s defense minister said Monday.

In a press conference, Shin Won-shik said the scale of DPRK-Russia arms trade is consistently increasing, but stressed that Seoul will maintain its position of not providing lethal weapons to Ukraine.

“Since my last update on this, around 300 containers have been additionally transported to Russia, amounting to around 7,000 now,” the defense chief said at a press conference with foreign journalists. “While maritime transfers saw a period of hiatus, North Korea also exported them