War in Ukraine: North Korean ballistic missile launched at Kharkov in January, UN inspectors say

This is proof that the debate may have been missing. A United Nations (UN) report showed the use of a North Korean missile on a target in Kharkov, Ukraine’s second-largest city, on January 2, Reuters reported. Remnants of a Hwasong-11 series ballistic missile were found at the site, UN sanctions monitors said in their report presented on April 25 to the committee responsible for monitoring sanctions within the Security Council.

A few days after the massive attack, on January 2, on numerous populated areas and infrastructure in the country, the prosecutor’s office of the Kharkov region presented fragments of the missile to the media, saying that it was different from Russian designs and that “it could be a missile supplied by North Korea.” Ukrainian authorities also claim that the projectile was “launched from the territory of the Russian Federation.”

White House security adviser John Kirby also accused Russian troops of using at least one North Korean missile on December 30 in the Zaporozhye region in southern Ukraine.

In early April, three UN sanctions inspectors visited Ukraine to inspect the wreckage. While they can confirm its North Korean development, they found no evidence that the missile was produced by Russia, which could demonstrate that the Hwasong-11, first publicly tested by Pyongyang in 2019, was delivered turnkey to troops in Moscow. They “could not independently determine where the rocket was launched from and by whom.”

Washington and Seoul have already condemned the supply of thousands of ammunition.

Officially known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs since 2006, and those measures have been tightened over the years. At a UN Security Council meeting in February, the United States accused Russia of firing North Korean-supplied ballistic missiles into Ukraine at least nine times.

“If the missile was under the control of Russian forces at the time of launch,” this “would most likely indicate that it was acquired by citizens of the Russian Federation,” the inspectors write, clarifying that this would be a violation of Russian law. arms embargo. In mid-March, South Korea estimated that its neighbor and enemy had delivered 7,000 weapons containers to Russia since July 2023, and the Russian cargo ship, although under American sanctions, would have carried eleven shipments between the North Korean port of Rajin in particular. and Russian ports since August. Angara has been at a Chinese shipyard in full view of the Chinese government since the beginning of February.

Last month, Russia vetoed the annual renewal of a panel of experts responsible for monitoring compliance with U.N. sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The mandate of the current group of experts will expire on Tuesday. Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un signaled a rapprochement between their two countries last September during a meeting in Vladivostok, which Kim attended in his armored train.