DPRK

Ukraine suffers from North Korean missiles that can operate thanks to Western components.

Source: CNN with references to sources

Details: The publication notes that about a third of the missiles with which the Russian Federation will attack Ukraine are North Korean, which works on Western designs received despite sanctions.

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According to a spokesperson from the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Russia has shot down about 60 North Korean KN-23 missiles in Ukraine this year. That represents nearly one in three of the 194 ballistic missiles fired, which CNN estimates is nearly a third of the 194 ballistic missiles fired so far.

There was an increase in ballistic missile attacks in August and September, when Ukraine publicly revealed that it was using the KN-23 for the first time.

The publication says that, because of this, Ukrainian officials gave CNN access to pieces of military debris that show the amount of American and European rounds in their target systems.

According to a recent report by the Independent Anti-Corruption Commission of Ukraine (NACU), nine Western manufacturers, including companies from the United States, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, produces critical parts used in North Korean missiles. Some of the KN-23/24 missile parts examined were made as early as 2023, indicating the speedy delivery to North Korea.

CNN showed one of the warehouses where Ukrainian investigators are analyzing the wreckage, looking for details that indicate where it came from.

In the warehouse, in particular, there were many damaged drones and burned parts of missiles, and hundreds of microchips were stored in different buildings, which were carefully ordered by the names of types of weapons – Shahed, Iskander, KN-23 .

“Everything that works to control the missile, to make it fly, are all foreign components.

“The only thing in Korean is metal, which quickly rusts and corrodes,” he said.

A representative of the main intelligence agency of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that their investigations are complicated by the damage of missile fragments, but it can still be concluded that “most probably -some of the western parts % are American, from well-known companies.” …

A report published earlier this year by British research group Conflict Armament Research (CAR) found that 75% of the components of one of the first North Korean missiles used to attack Ukraine were made by US-based companies.

Weapons tracking experts say there is no reliable information on how the parts end up in North Korea. But everything points to China as the most likely supply channel, experts say.

“We have found some of these components, and the last known custodians are Chinese companies,” said Damien Spleeters, deputy director of operations at CAR, which independently records This means that Chinese companies bought components from manufacturers and various intermediaries.

CAR and others believe that the main problem is the intermediary companies, not the manufacturers.

According to CAR, there are more than 250 companies whose parts have been found in North Korean missiles. But most of these electronic products are sold to five main distributors, which are based in the United States and Canada.

The US Department of Commerce has already strengthened its control over companies and entities that supply licensed goods to Russia and Belarus.

Ukrainian officials say that one of the main problems is poor compliance with sanctions from Western countries.

Ukraine’s Presidential Commissioner for Sanctions Policy Vladislav Vlasyuk expressed hope that the new administration of US President Donald Trump will try to strengthen control over illegal trade.

“No manufacturing company has ever been held responsible for any of these shipments,” he told CNN, “We believe that if any of these … Ukraine would start, (they) doing more in that sense.”

This is similar to the comments of the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which earlier this year criticized US manufacturers for not doing enough to investigate customers despite to have sufficient “resources, funding and expertise”.

According to a Ukrainian intelligence representative, the redirection of parts to Iran and directly to Russia also continues.

“Russia uses Western components across the entire spectrum of lethal weapons and reconnaissance drones,” a spokesman for the Defense Ministry’s Central Intelligence Agency told CNN, noting that the downing of one of Russia’s heavy drones, the Okhotnik, showed that it was done in the first place. We also need to do adequate work to close these supply channels,” he said.

Let us remember you: Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sbiga called on allies to tighten sanctions and export controls after the discovery of newly manufactured Western components in a fired North Korean missile down in Ukraine.

Western intelligence estimates that half of the approximately three million artillery shells used by Russia each year come from North Korea.

September also saw evidence of a new delivery of North Korean ballistic missiles to Moscow.