North Korea is using Ukraine as a checkpoint for its nuclear-capable missiles, South Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations said on Thursday.
Hwang “strongly” condemned North Korea’s exports of such missiles and their use through Russia in the Dec. 30, Jan. 2 and January attacks, he said.
He pointed to Russia’s use of KN-23 short-range ballistic missiles, which North Korea tested in 2018 and 2019. These missiles can hit targets up to 690 kilometers, or about 428 miles, according to the nonprofit Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance.
Hwang also warned that North Korea’s missile exports pose an “existential threat” to South Korea and that the U. N. Council’s silence has only served to embolden North Korea’s leadership.
North Korea has manufactured a wide variety of ballistic and cruise missiles since 2017, expanding its launches to 68 in 2022, according to the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies’ North Korea Missile Test Tracker.
Russia is now taking North Korea’s missile expertise and using it in its war of aggression against Ukraine, Hwang said.
He also said that “the introduction of North Korean missiles into the war in Ukraine has a significant implication on global nuclear non-proliferation.”
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby commented on the missiles’ use last Thursday, saying that Russia had acquired “several dozen” ballistic missiles from North Korea and used them in two separate attacks on December 30 and January 2.
Experts from the Institute for the Study of War think tank said that Russia is likely looking to North Korea because it has a type of missile that Ukraine struggles to intercept.
The ISW cited a Dec. 29 attack, in which Ukraine said it had intercepted 149 of the 166 cruise missiles fired through Russia (about 90 percent), but a “handful” of ballistic missiles.
Ballistic missiles “appear to be more effective in penetrating or avoiding Ukrainian air defenses” than the cruise missiles used so far across Russia, the ISW concluded.
The Washington, D. C. -based think tankHe added that Russia is most likely also turning to Iran when it comes to buying ballistic missiles.
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