UNITED NATIONS — The head of an investigative body that has been tracking weapons used in attacks in Ukraine since 2018 told the United Nations Security Council on Friday that it had “irrefutably” established that ballistic missile remains found in Ukraine came from North Korea.
The United States and its Western allies clashed with Russia and North Korea at the meeting, saying both countries had violated a U.N. embargo on arms exports from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the country’s official name. Russia rejected the “baseless accusations” and the DPRK dismissed the meeting as “an extremely brazen act” to “discuss someone’s alleged ‘arms transfers’.”
Jonah Leff, executive director of Conflict Armament Research, provided the council with a detailed analysis of the remains of the missile that hit Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkivon January 2nd.
He said the organization had documented the rocket’s rocket engine, tail section and nearly 300 parts, which were manufactured by 26 companies from eight countries and territories, and that they had determined that the rocket was a KN-23 or KN-24 produced in 2023 in the DPRK.
The organization came to this conclusion based on the rocket’s unique characteristics: its diameter, the various jet fin actuators that determine the rocket’s thrust and trajectory, the pattern around the fuze, the presence of Korean characters on some rocket parts and other markings and parts dating back to 2023, he said.
“Following initial documentation, our teams inspected three additional identical DPRK missiles that struck Kiev and Zaporizhia earlier this year,” Leff said. They also observed additional conventional weapons, including an artillery rocket produced in 1977, “which had been seized at the front and had not previously been seen on the battlefield in Ukraine” that had been manufactured by the DPRK and may have been part of a recent bigger shipment of rockers.
The council discussed illegal arms shipments from North Korea at the request of France, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The meeting followed The Russian veto of March 28 ending 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 trying to avoid scrutiny, just like them allegedly violated sanctions to buy weapons from Pyongyang be first war in Ukraine.
UN disarmament chief Izumi Nakamitsu told the council on Friday that before its mandate expired, the panel of experts was reviewing a report from Ukraine on missile debris that it had recovered “following information on short-range ballistic missiles deployed in the DPRK were manufactured and used by Russian forces in Ukraine.”
Although the mandate of the experts, which had been extended since 2009 with Russian support, has ended, Nakamitsu said it is “important to note” that the Security Council committee responsible for monitoring the implementation of sanctions against the DPRK “continues its work and will monitor the implementation of the sanctions regime.”
U.S. Ambassador Robert Wood called Leff’s presentation, with its many technical details, “quite compelling” and told the council that while Russia may have ended the panel’s monitoring with China’s “tacit support,” the briefing showed that Moscow and Beijing “cannot prevent the public from learning about the unlawful arms transfers between North Korea and Russia.”
He said the independent findings from Leff’s research organization corroborate open-source reporting and analysis. And he said that in addition to the dozens of missiles that Russia transferred from the DPRK, Russia also unlawfully transferred more than 11,000 containers of ammunition.
“As a permanent member of the Security Council, Russia has a responsibility to maintain and strengthen international peace and security,” Wood said. “Yet Russia is launching ballistic missiles, unlawfully obtained from the DPRK, against the Ukrainian people.”
Russian UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused the meeting’s Western sponsors of trying to use the Security Council “to spread an anti-Russian and anti-North Korean narrative and spread unfounded accusations to distract attention from their own destructive actions that fuel escalation in the region.”
He called claims that Russia is using North Korean missiles in Ukraine “absolutely false,” and questioned the professionalism and expertise of those who examined the wreckage in Ukraine.
Nebenzia continually accused the United States of intensifying the militarization of the Asia-Pacific region and said Washington’s policy of “extended deterrence” on Russia’s eastern border “poses a real threat not only to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, but also to our country.”
He said that the purpose of June 19 strategic partnership agreement signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “should play a stabilizing role in Northeast Asia amid an unprecedented escalation of tensions.” Turning to Article 4 of the agreement, which provides for the provision of mutual military assistance if either country falls victim to an armed attack, he said this should not raise “national security concerns” for countries that are not intend to attack the DPRK.
North Korea’s U.N. Ambassador Kim Song called the United States “the world’s largest arms exporter” and accused the Western countries that convened the council meeting of being “the main culprits” of disrupting global peace. They have caused ‘tragic bloodshed on a large scale shipment of weapons “and have cast “a cloud of war into every corner of the world.”
Song described US arms shipments to South Korea and Japan and accused the US and its minions of hindering the development of DPRK-Russia relations. He defended those relations as ‘entirely of a peaceful and defensive nature’.
Chinese Deputy UN Ambassador Geng Shuang warned that this will affect peace and security across Northeast Asia “more chaos” on the Korean Peninsula.
He called on all parties to be “rational and pragmatic” and “work together to calm the situation.”
China will play “a constructive role.” to realize long-term peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, Geng said, calling on the United States to end its pressure campaign against the DPRK and “the myth of deterrence,” and show its sincerity by conducting unconditional dialogue “through concrete action.”
US envoy Wood responded: “If China is indeed so concerned about the security situation on the Korean Peninsula, it should use its influence over the DPRK to persuade it to undermine regional and global security.”
“It would also increase the influence it has on Russia through its new ‘No Limits’ Partnership to put an end to this increasingly dangerous military cooperation between North Korea and Russia,” he said.