The head of a research organisation that has been tracing weapons used in attacks in Ukraine since 2018 says it has "irrefutably" established that ballistic missile remnants there came from North Korea.
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Jonah Leff, executive director of Conflict Armament Research, gave the UN Security Council a detailed analysis of the remnants of the missile that struck Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, on January 2.
The United States and its Western allies accused Russia and North Korea at the council meeting of violating a UN embargo on arms exports from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the country's official name.
Russia described the accusations as baseless and the DPRK dismissed the meeting as "an extremely brazen act" to discuss "someone's alleged 'weapon transfers.'"
Leff said the organisation 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 organisation 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 rockers.
The council discussed illegal arms transfers from North Korea at the request of France, Japan, South Korea, the UK and the US.
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.
US Ambassador Robert Wood called Leff's presentation "quite compelling," and told the council that while Russia may have ended the panel's monitoring with China's "tacit support," Moscow and Beijing "cannot prevent the public from learning about the unlawful arms transfers occurring between the DPRK and Russia."
"As a permanent member of the Security Council, Russia has a responsibility to uphold and strengthen international peace and security," Wood said. "Yet, Russia is launching ballistic missiles, which it unlawfully procured from the DPRK, against the Ukrainian people."
Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia called the claims that Russia is using DPRK missiles in Ukraine "absolutely false," questioning the professionalism and expertise of those who examined the wreckage in Ukraine.
North Korea's UN Ambassador Kim Song accused the Western countries that called the council meeting of being "the main culprits" of disturbing global peace. They have caused "tragic bloodshed by extensive shipment of weapons " and have cast "a cloud of war in every corner of the world."
Song defended DPRK-Russia relations as "completely of a peace-loving and defensive nature."
China Deputy UN Ambassador Geng Shuang warned that peace and security in all of northeast Asia will be affected if there is "more chaos" on the Korean peninsula.
He called on all parties to be "rational and pragmatic" and "work together to cool down the situation."
Australian Associated Press
