“Worrying escalation”
USA: Kremlin uses North Korean missiles against Ukraine
January 4, 2024, 8:50 p.m
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In order to cover the Russian armed forces’ enormous consumption of ammunition, Moscow is turning to allied states. According to the USA, the Kremlin is now also using ballistic missiles from North Korea against Ukraine. Washington speaks of a “worrying escalation”.
According to the US government, Russia used missiles from North Korea in its war of aggression against Ukraine. National Security Council Communications Director John Kirby said at the White House that, according to US information, Pyongyang had recently delivered rocket launchers and several ballistic missiles to Moscow. At the turn of the year, Russian armed forces fired several of these missiles into Ukraine.
“This is a significant and concerning escalation of North Korean support for Russia,” Kirby emphasized. There are also indications that talks between Moscow and Tehran about the supply of missiles are advancing. The US and its allies would now bring the matter to the table in the UN Security Council, Kirby announced. North Korea’s arms sales to Russia constituted a violation of UN sanctions imposed on the East Asian country, he stressed.
The USA and other countries have long expressed concern about the growing military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang. Kirby said Russia was increasingly isolated on the world stage because of international sanctions and export controls and forced to look to like-minded states for military equipment. These included North Korea and Iran.
According to US information, Russian forces fired at least one of North Korea’s ballistic missiles into Ukraine on December 30, Kirby said. This appears to have fallen in an open field in the Zaporizhzhia region. On Tuesday, however, Russia fired several more North Korean ballistic missiles into Ukraine.
“We are still in the process of assessing the impact of these additional missiles,” Kirby emphasized. “We expect that Russia and North Korea will learn from these launches and that Russia will use additional North Korean missiles to attack Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure and kill innocent Ukrainian civilians.” The missiles from Pyongyang have a range of around 900 kilometers.
The US government assumes that North Korea wants to obtain military equipment from Russia in return for its support – including fighter jets, surface-to-air missiles, armored vehicles or materials for the production of advanced military technologies. This would have worrying implications for the security of the Korean Peninsula and the Indo-Pacific region, Kirby warned.
With regard to Iran, the communications director said that the US government does not currently believe that Tehran has already delivered ballistic missiles to Moscow. However, negotiations on this are being actively pursued. The US government is concerned about this.
The USA had already reported North Korean arms deliveries to Russia in recent months. In October, Kirby said North Korea had delivered “more than 1,000 containers” of military equipment and ammunition for the war against Ukraine. North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un met Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin in the Russian Far East in September. Russia is using huge amounts of weapons and ammunition in its war of aggression against Ukraine and, according to experts, cannot keep up with their production at home.