“Russia-Ukraine War & North Korean Missile Debris in Ukraine”
The head of a research organization that has been tracing weapons used in attacks in Ukraine since 2018 told the United Nations Security Council on Friday it has “irrefutably” established that ballistic missile remnants found in Ukraine came from North Korea. The United States and its Western allies clashed with Russia and North Korea at the meeting, saying both countries violated a UN embargo on arms exports from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the country’s official name.
Russia dismissed the “baseless accusations,” and the DPRK dismissed the meeting as “an extremely brazen act” to discuss “someone’s alleged ‘weapon transfers.’” Jonah Leff, executive director of Conflict Armament Research, gave the council a detailed analysis of the remnants of the missile that struck Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, on Jan. 2. He said the organization documented the missile’s rocket motor, its tail section and almost 300 components manufactured by 26 companies from eight countries and territories, and it determined the missile was either a KN-23 or KN-24 manufactured in 2023 in the DPRK.
The organization reached its conclusion based on the missile’s unique characteristics — its diameter, distinct jet vane actuators that direct the missile’s thrust and trajectory, the pattern around the igniter, the presence of Korean characters on some rocket components, and other marks and components dating back to 2023, he said. “Following the initial documentation, our teams inspected three additional identical DPRK missiles that struck Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia earlier this year,”
Leff said. They also observed additional conventional weapons, including an artillery rocket produced in 1977, “that had been seized on the front lines and had not been observed on the battlefield previously in Ukraine” that were manufactured by the DPRK, and might have been part of a recent larger consignment of rockets. The council discussed illegal arms transfers from North Korea at the request of France, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States.
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Russia-Ukraine War: UN Highlights North Korean Missile Use in Ukraine
The meeting followed Russia’s March 28 veto that ended the monitoring of sanctions against North Korea over its expanding nuclear program by a UN panel of experts. The US and its European and Asian allies accused Moscow of seeking to avoid scrutiny as it allegedly violates sanctions to buy weapons from Pyongyang for its war in Ukraine. UN disarmament chief Izumi Nakamitsu told the council Friday that before its mandate expired, the panel of experts was reviewing a report from Ukraine on missile debris it recovered “following information about shortrange ballistic missiles manufactured in the DPRK and used by Russian armed forces in Ukraine.
.” While the mandate of the experts, which had been extended since 2009 with Russia’s support, was terminated, Nakamitsu said “it is important to note” that the Security Council committee responsible for monitoring the implementation of sanctions against the DPRK “continues its work and will oversee the implementation of the sanctions regime.”
US deputy ambassador Robert Wood called Leff’s presentation with its many technical details “quite compelling,” and told the council that while Russia may have ended the panel’s monitoring with China’s “tacit support,” the briefing showed that Moscow and Beijing “cannot prevent the public from learning about the unlawful arms transfers occurring between the DPRK and Russia.” He said the independent findings by Leff’s research organization corroborate open-source reports and analyses.
And he said that, in addition to the dozens of missiles Russia has transferred from the DPRK, it has also unlawfully transferred over 11,000 containers of munitions to help Russia in Russia-Ukraine War.
This article contains information originally published by Al-Arabiya. For more details, please visit their website to read more about the Russia-Ukraine War updates.
