UN confirms Russia’s use of missiles from the DPRK

The UN confirms that Russia struck Kharkiv with a North Korean-made missile.

United Nations sanctions monitors confirmed this, Reuters reports.

The wreckage of the missile that was found after the attack on the Ukrainian city on January 2 this year was from a North Korean Hwasong-11 series ballistic missile.

Russia’s use of these weapons is a direct violation of Security Council sanctions that impose an arms embargo on North Korea.

Three sanctions monitors traveled to Ukraine earlier this month to inspect the debris and found no evidence that the missile was made by Russia.

According to a 32-page report presented to one of the Security Council’s committees, experts confirmed that “the missile debris discovered in Kharkiv on January 2, 2024, came from a DPRK Hwasong-11 missile” and indicates a violation of the arms embargo on the supply of weapons to and from the DPRK.

Sanctions monitors noted that they “cannot independently determine where the missile was launched from and by whom.” However, the information provided by the Ukrainian side “indicates that it was launched within the territory of the Russian Federation.”

Russia’s use of ballistic missiles made in the DPRK against Kharkiv was also confirmed by the Conflict Armament Research (CAR) international organization, which monitors arms supplies.

The North Korean Hwasong-11 (KN-23) is actually a copy of the Russian 9M723 ballistic missile of the Iskander system, but it has a number of technical and visual differences. The obvious ones include the structural differences in the tail part.

Since 2006, North Korea has been under UN Security Council sanctions, which include a ban on the import and export of military technology due to nuclear and ballistic missile tests.

North Korean arms supplies to Russia

Militarnyi has repeatedly reported on the use of weapons manufactured in the DPRK by the Russian invasion forces.

In particular, there were reports of the poor quality of North Korean products. For example, the propaganda media talked about the shortcomings of the 152-mm artillery shells’ propellant charges.