North Korea provided Russia with about 100 KN-23 and KN-24 short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) and dispatched military experts to maintain the launchers, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said Monday.
The KN-23 is a tactical guided missile similar to Russia’s Iskander-M, while the KN-24 is another tactical guided missile close to the American-made Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS). Their North Korean names are “Hwasong-11ga” and “Hwasong-11na.”
“The aggressor state of Russia has received more than 100 such missiles from the DPRK,” the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU) report said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “The enemy first used these weapons in the war against Ukraine at the end of 2023.”
The DIU has updated the list of foreign components found in wreckages of KN-23 and KN-24 SRBMs.
Components manufactured by companies in China, the United States, Japan, Britain and Switzerland have been added, including a voltage converter manufactured by British company XP Power in February 2023.
This new list is noteworthy because it shows that North Korea has been using foreign-made parts to produce missiles, avoiding international sanctions even after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The DIU emphasized that Russia, North Korea and Iran are colluding to secure weapons technology and evade international sanctions and that appropriate measures, such as strengthening expert control,s are necessary.
The DIU releases information on 4,145 foreign-made components identified as being included in 149 weapons used by Russia on its English portal, “War & Sanctions.”
Of these, 36 foreign parts used in the KN-23 and KN-24, including those newly added Monday, were manufactured by 19 companies from seven countries: the United States, China, Japan, the Netherlands, Germany, Britain and Switzerland.
Andriy Kulchytskyi, head of the Military Research Laboratory of Kyiv’s Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise, told U.S. broadcaster CNN on Saturday that almost all components of the missiles were foreign-made.
“Everything that works to guide the missile, to make it fly, is all foreign components. All the electronics are foreign. There is nothing [North] Korean in it,” said Kulchytskyi. “The only thing [North] Korean is the metal, which quickly rusts and corrodes.”
Weapons experts say that while it is unclear how these missile components were smuggled into North Korea, Chinese companies may have been involved.
The war in Ukraine has escalated in recent days with Kyiv’s attacks into Russian territory with U.S.-made ATACMS and British-made Storm Shadow missiles on Nov. 19 and 20 and Russia’s intermediate-range missile strike on Ukraine on Thursday, which Kyiv initially claimed was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
On Sunday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko said in an interview with state news agency TASS that Moscow would respond strongly if Seoul supplies lethal weapons to Ukraine, adding that such a move would “fully destroy relations” between South Korea and Russia.
BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]
