Russia has fired North Korean ballistic missiles against Ukraine at least nine times, according to a US diplomat.
Robert Wood, the US Alternate Representative for Special Political Affairs in the UN, made the accusation on Tuesday at a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine, per Reuters.
“To date, Russia has launched DPRK-supplied ballistic missiles against Ukraine on at least nine occasions,” he said, using the acronym for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, as North Korea is officially known.
Wood added that Russia and North Korea “must be held accountable for their actions, which undermine long-standing obligations under UN Security Council resolutions.”
A UN press briefing of the Security Council meeting does not mention the accusations.
If true, it would be significant, as it would show that Russia is ramping up its use of North Korean missiles in Ukraine.
Last month, the White House said it had information showing that Russia had fired North Korean missiles on two separate attacks on Ukraine on December 30 and January 2.
South Korea’s ambassador to the UN, Joonkook Hwang, went further, accusing Russia of using North Korean-supplied KN-23 missiles on December 30, January 2, and January 4.
He said that North Korea had used Ukraine as “a test site of its nuclear-capable missiles.”
Ukraine’s prosecutor-general, Andriy Kostin, told Ukrainian state broadcaster Suspilne that a preliminary examination showed that a missile fired at central Kharkiv on January 2 was developed in North Korea.
On Wednesday, Serhii Bolvinov, the head of the investigative department of the Kharkiv Oblast police, said in a Facebook post that two of five missiles launched at Kharkiv earlier that day were made in North Korea.
The claim could not be independently verified.
While the potential use of North Korean missiles is worrying for Ukraine, military analysts say they could actually help the US figure out how effective the missiles are.
They also likely won’t help Russia defeat Ukraine, as Michael Peck reported last month.
