[News in War History] Smuggled Weapons: A Double-Edged Sword in the Ukraine War... They Existed in the Joseon Era Too

U.S. Sends Seized Iranian Weapons to Ukraine
Joseon Smuggled Firearms and Gunpowder from Japan in the 17th Century
North Korea Emerges as a Major Player in the Global Arms Smuggling Market

The U.S. government has announced that it has provided Ukraine with smuggled Iranian weapons and ammunition seized in the Middle East, drawing international attention. This is quite an ironic development, considering that there has been controversy over the significant number of Western weapons delivered to Ukraine since the outbreak of the war, some of which were reportedly smuggled and leaked to external parties.

According to UN principles, seized smuggled weapons are supposed to be stored separately or destroyed if storage is not possible. However, as the U.S. has found it increasingly difficult to provide additional support to Ukraine, it has begun supplying seized smuggled weapons, and it is expected that more confiscated weapons will be delivered to Ukraine in the future. It is reported that the amount of ammunition provided by the U.S. alone this time exceeds one million rounds, highlighting the enormous scale of the international arms smuggling market, especially centered around the Middle East.

This arms smuggling is said to have historical parallels with the matchlock guns, known as "jochong," that often appear in Korean history lessons about the Joseon Dynasty?meaning the history of muzzle-loading firearms. In the 17th century, large-scale arms smuggling between Korea and Japan was reportedly common. In other words, this trade has a history spanning over 400 years.

This time, we will briefly explore the history of arms smuggling, which began much earlier than many might think, as well as the current state of the global arms smuggling market.

◆News: U.S. "Supports Ukraine with Iranian Smuggled Weapons Seized in the Middle East"

[Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

Let’s start with the news. According to CNN on October 4 (local time), the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that it had transferred 1.1 million rounds of 7.62mm ammunition, seized in waters around the Middle East, to the Ukrainian military on October 2. This ammunition was reportedly seized last December from a stateless vessel transporting it from Iran to the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

It is expected that the U.S. military will continue to support Ukraine with seized weapons, and that a massive volume of smuggled arms will be delivered to Ukraine. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the amount of Iranian ammunition and weapons seized in July alone was enormous: more than 9,000 rifles, 284 machine guns, 194 rocket launchers, 70 anti-tank guided missiles, and over 700,000 rounds of ammunition.

The reason the U.S. government is supporting Ukraine with seized weapons is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to provide additional military aid to Ukraine. Recently, the unprecedented removal of the Speaker of the House in the U.S. Congress has led to severe political turmoil, causing additional aid bills for Ukraine to stall, while public support for Ukraine aid has also significantly declined.

The U.S. decision to support Ukraine with seized smuggled weapons, even at the cost of violating UN principles, is believed to be due to both the current U.S. political situation and Ukraine’s desperate situation on the front lines. Since August, the Ukrainian military has launched a large-scale counteroffensive on major fronts, but a worsening ammunition shortage has repeatedly thwarted breakthroughs. It is reported that the number of shells fired by Ukraine per day is less than one-tenth of what the Russian military uses, making it extremely difficult for Ukraine to maintain its front lines.

While the seized smuggled weapons cannot fully compensate for the Ukrainian military’s shortage, they are expected to help secure the urgently needed quantities for now. Considering that, at the beginning of the war, there were concerns that some Western weapons supplied to Ukraine were being smuggled to other countries, smuggled weapons are truly acting as a double-edged sword in the Ukraine war.

◆History 1: Joseon’s Active Arms Smuggling with Japan During the Ming-Qing Transition

[Image source=Movie 'Namhansanseong'; still cut]

Such arms smuggling is known to have a very long history. It is believed that international-scale arms smuggling, rather than just regional, began in earnest after the start of the Age of Exploration in the 17th century. At that time, Western fleets began to venture across Asia, Africa, and the Americas, and matchlock guns became a highly sought-after commodity, marking the birth of the international arms smuggling business.

According to "Thundersticks," a book by David Silverman, a Native American history expert at George Washington University, Dutch traders began selling matchlock guns to Native Americans in North America as early as the 1630s. As a result, by the 18th century, Native American tribes such as the Iroquois Confederacy possessed firearms on par with Western settlers.

In East Asia, Portuguese traders sold matchlock guns to Japan and even transferred manufacturing technology, which became a major backdrop to the Imjin War, a massive international conflict unlike any previous wars in the region. The beginning was in 1543, when Portuguese traders who drifted to Tanegashima, at the southern tip of Kyushu, Japan, sold two matchlock guns for the first time.

After the Imjin War, in the 17th century, during the major geopolitical upheaval of the Ming-Qing transition, the Joseon Dynasty, which was caught in the middle, reportedly engaged in large-scale arms smuggling with Japan. Organizations were formed to smuggle matchlock guns, swords, and sulfur?one of the main ingredients for gunpowder?from Japan in large quantities.

In 1667, during the Edo period, records from the Nagasaki Bugyosho, which collected judicial records from Nagasaki?the only port open for foreign trade in Japan?show that Japanese smugglers who were caught and executed for smuggling weapons to Joseon were documented. It was a major incident, with more than 100 people investigated and 43 executed. They were executed for violating the shogunate’s weapons export ban, and it is believed that they had been smuggling weapons to Joseon for some time before that.

Although the Ming Dynasty fell in 1644, its remnants continued to resist the Qing army, especially in the Jiangnan region. This anti-Qing movement persisted until 1683, when the Dongning Kingdom, led by the Zheng family in Taiwan, was finally destroyed. In this situation, with the Joseon Dynasty unable to openly expand its military, it is believed that both private merchants and officials collaborated to increase their firearms through large-scale arms smuggling with Japan.

◆History 2: The Growth of Arms Smuggling with 19th-Century Imperialism

A mural remaining in the old arms factory in Li?ge, Belgium. It depicts an arms dealer selling firearms to African natives.

The arms smuggling business reached its peak during the era of 19th-century imperialism. Until then, most weapons factories were privately owned, and unless governments imposed export restrictions during wartime, these arms manufacturers actively sold weapons regardless of nationality.

Since the 18th century, West Africa had already become a major arms smuggling market, where firearms were traded for slaves. According to "Rulers, Guns, and Money," a 2012 book by Jonathan Grant, a professor at Florida State University, between 1750 and 1807, an enormous number of firearms?ranging from 283,000 to 394,000 per year?were imported from Western countries to West Africa.

After the mid-19th century, as Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France expanded their colonial presence in Africa, the firearms smuggling market grew even larger. Because firearms were traded at prices four to five times higher than in Europe, hundreds of thousands of guns and ammunition were exported across Africa every year. From the late 19th century, this market also expanded significantly into the Middle East and Asia.

International efforts to eradicate arms smuggling first began with the establishment of the League of Nations in 1920 after World War I. However, through World War II and the Cold War, the arms smuggling market in so-called Third World countries in Africa and Asia continued to grow, and since the 2000s, it is estimated that the black market for small arms alone has exceeded $10 billion (about 13.5 trillion won).

◆Implication: North Korea as a Major Player in the International Arms Smuggling Market

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The reality of arms smuggling is by no means unrelated to Korea. North Korea is considered one of the major players in the global arms smuggling market. Just about 40 kilometers from Seoul lies one of the world’s largest sources of international arms trafficking.

According to the "Trade Update 2020" report by Small Arms Survey, a research institute under The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland, North Korea and Iran were cited as the countries with the lowest transparency in global small arms trade. Both countries received a transparency score of zero for their small arms trade.

Despite sanctions, North Korea is estimated to earn hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign currency by smuggling various weapons, including firearms, grenades, and ballistic missiles. This is also why there was speculation about possible arms deals during the recent summit between North Korea and Russia, which drew international attention. From private individuals to governments, the "Merchants of Death" who will sell weapons anywhere in the world for profit are unlikely to be eradicated anytime soon.