SEOUL - North Korea has shifted the transmission of its state TV broadcasts from a Chinese satellite to a Russian one, South Korea’s unification ministry said on July 2, causing service disruptions in the South.

The move comes as Russia and the North draw ever closer, with Russian President Vladimir Putin visiting leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang in June and signing a “breakthrough” deal, including a pledge to come to each other’s military aid if attacked.

“North Korea has stopped using the previous Chinese satellite and is now broadcasting through a Russian satellite,” Seoul’s unification ministry said in a statement sent to AFP on July 2.

The move “has resulted in limited satellite broadcast reception in some of our regions”, it added.

While the South Korean public is legally banned from accessing Pyongyang state media, Seoul authorities and media outlets need satellite service to monitor the broadcasts, where the North makes major announcements and shares government propaganda.

Moscow and Pyongyang have been allies since North Korea’s founding after World War II and have drawn even closer since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The United States and its allies have accused North Korea of providing ammunition and missiles to Russia for its war in Ukraine, and the recent Kim-Putin summit has fuelled concerns about more deliveries.

Following Mr Putin and Mr Kim’s agreement in Pyongyang, South Korea, a major weapons exporter, has said it will “reconsider” a long-standing policy that bars it from supplying arms directly to Kyiv.

Mr Kim and Mr Putin also agreed to “boost exchange and cooperation in the fields of agriculture, education, public health, sports, culture, (and) tourism”.

North Korea put its first spy satellite into orbit late 2023, after receiving technical help from Russia, Seoul claims, in return for sending arms to Moscow for use in Ukraine.

Experts said the shift to using a Russian satellite could be an experiment, as the North looks to ramp up its homegrown space capabilities.

It could be “a step towards developing a commercial satellite with the help of Russian technology in the future”, Dr Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told AFP.

The change also helps the North to “block the spread of South Korean popular content linked to the frequencies of the previous Chinese satellite”, he said.

The isolated North is extremely sensitive about its people gaining access to K-pop or K-dramas, with a recent report by Seoul’s ministry of unification pointing to a 2022 case where a man was executed over possession of South Korean content.

The move also highlights how Pyongyang is prioritising its ties with Moscow over its relationship with key ally Beijing.

“China may begin to apply increased diplomatic pressure on North Korea going forward,” a defector-turned-researcher Ahn Chan-il, who runs the World Institute for North Korea Studies, said. AFP