Russia's launching North Korean missiles in Ukraine: White House

Kwan Wei Kevin Tan

January 5, 2024 8:03 AM

North Korea's ballistic missiles have made their appearance on the Ukrainian battlefield, the White House said on Thursday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (left) shaking hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) when they met in September.Kremlin Press Office / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Russia has gotten its hands on North Korean missiles and is using them on Ukraine, says White House.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Russia had used them in two recent attacks.
Kirby said he expects future Russian attacks to rely on North Korea's missiles.

"Our information indicates that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea recently provided Russia with ballistic missile launchers and several dozen ballistic missiles," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said at a press conference.

Kirby told journalists that Russian forces had fired North Korea's missiles on two separate attacks on December 30 and January 2.

"We expect Russia and North Korea to learn from these launches, and we anticipate that Russia will use additional North Korean missiles to target Ukraine's civilian infrastructure and to kill innocent Ukrainian civilians," Kirby said.

North Korea is shaping up to become one of Russia's major arms suppliers. The hermit kingdom has sent Russia large quantities of ammunition to support the latter's invasion of Ukraine.

The UK's Ministry of Defence said in an intelligence dispatch in October that North Korea's weapon shipments could allow it "to become one of Russia's most significant foreign arms suppliers, alongside Iran and Belarus."

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has also previously endorsed President Vladimir Putin. "We will always support the decisions of President Putin and the Russian leadership," he said when he met the Russian president in September.

Interestingly, Russia isn't the only user of North Korean weapons. The Ukrainians have also been using North Korean-made rockets on the battlefield, per the Financial Times.

Ukrainian forces told the FT that a "friendly" country had "seized" the North Korean rockets from a ship, but didn't provide further details.

That said, the Ukrainians weren't fans of the rockets, which they said were "very unreliable and do crazy things sometimes."

Nonetheless, Kirby said it was troubling that North Korea had stepped up its support for Russia.

"These North Korean ballistic missiles are capable of ranges of approximately 900 kilometers. That's about 550 miles," Kirby said at the press conference.

"This is a significant and concerning escalation in the DPRK's support for Russia," he continued.

Representatives for Russia's defense ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.

Kwan Wei Kevin Tan