Russia supplied anti-air missiles to North Korea, Seoul says – DW – 11/22/2024

Russia has supplied anti-aircraft missiles to North Korea in exchange for North Korean troops supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine, a top South Korean official has said.

“It has been identified that equipment and anti-aircraft missiles aimed at reinforcing Pyongyang’s vulnerable air defense system have been delivered to North Korea,” Shin Won-sik, Seoul’s top security advisor, told TV broadcaster SBS.

According to Shin, Russia has also provided various forms of economic aid to North Korea.

The US, South Korea, and others say North Korea has sent more than 10,000 troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine.

Seoul and Washington have expressed concern about possible Russian transfers of sensitive nuclear and missile technology to North Korea.

Separately, the UK-based nonprofit research group Open Source Centre said North Korea likely received more than 1 million barrels of oil from Russia over an eight-month period this year in violation of UN sanctions.

It cited satellite images showing more than a dozen North Korean oil tankers making a total of 43 trips to an oil terminal in Russian ports over the past eight months.

Under UN Security Council restrictions imposed over North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile development, Pyongyang is limited to importing 500,000 barrels of refined products per year.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its air defense systems destroyed and intercepted 23 Ukrainian drones overnight over the western Bryansk, Kaluga and Kursk regions.

The ministry had no reports of damage or casualties. The Bryansk and Kursk Oblasts border on Ukraine, and the Kaluga Oblast is located between the Bryansk Oblast and Moscow.

Russian drone strikes have killed at least two people in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, according to the acting mayor.

“Several massive explosions took place in Sumy,” Artem Kobzar said in a video message on Telegram, adding that at least two people had died. 

The Sumy regional military administration said a residential neighborhood had been hit by a Russian drone, adding that rescue operations were underway. It confirmed the two deaths and said 12 people had been injured.

Sumy lies across the border from Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops have seized swathes of territory after launching a major ground offensive in August.

President Vladimir Putin said on Russian television Thursday that a new intermediate-range missile had been fired at a military facility in Ukraine, hours after claims from Kyiv of the first known use of an even longer-range intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

Putin told Russian viewers that the move was a response to the US and UK granting Ukraine permission to strike targets further inside Russia in a limited capacity with their weaponry. He said Russia would have the “right” to strike countries whose weapons were used by Ukraine to strike Russia.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia’s attack was a “clear and severe escalation” in the ongoing war.

“The use of a ballistic missile against Ukraine today is yet more proof that Russia has no interest in peace,” he wrote on X.

dh/lo (AP, afp, dpa, Reuters)