South Korea calls Russia 'self-contradictory' for using North Korean missiles in Ukraine

South Korea called on Russia to stop shipping arms from North Korea in violation of sanctions it approved as a member of the UN Security Council after the United States highlighted details of Russia’s alleged use of missiles provided by the North.

National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications John Kirby adjusts his glasses as he attends the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington on April 20, 2023. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

South Korea called on Russia to stop shipping arms from North Korea in violation of sanctions it approved as a member of the United Nations Security Council after the United States highlighted details of Russia’s alleged use of missiles provided by the North.

“It is self-contradictory for Russia, a party to the United Nations Security Council’s sanctions resolutions against North Korea, to receive North Korean weapons and use them in the war in Ukraine,” a Foreign Ministry official said, adding that Seoul “once again strongly urges an immediate stop to this.”

Citing recently declassified intelligence, the White House said Thursday (local time) that Russia has used short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM) provided by North Korea in attacks against Ukraine.

National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications John Kirby said that the North’s arms transfer to Russia constitutes a “significant and concerning escalation” and said the United States would raise the issue at the United Nations Security Council and impose additional sanctions against those facilitating the arms deals.

“Our information indicates that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea recently provided Russia with ballistic missile launchers and several ballistic missiles,” said Kirby, referring to the North by its official name.

Kirby noted that the Russian military on Dec. 30 “launched at least one of these North Korean ballistic missiles into Ukraine,” which he said it landed in an open field.

According to Kirby, Russia then used “multiple” North Korean missiles to conduct a heavy air strike on Tuesday.

The national security advisor said the North Korean missiles in question have a range of approximately 900 kilometers (560 miles).

Both Pyongyang and Moscow have denied that arms shipments have taken place, but South Korean and U.S. officials have cited satellite reconnaissance of Rajin port in North Korea, which shows a significant number of containers being loaded onto Russia-bound ships, as circumstantial evidence of weapons being delivered to Russia.

On Oct. 13, Kirby said that U.S. intelligence “indicates that in recent weeks, North Korea has provided Russia with more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions.”

The U.S. view is that the North is supplying arms in return for assistance in military technology from Russia, “including fighter aircraft, surface-to-air missiles, armored vehicles, ballistic missile production equipment or materials, and other advanced technologies,” according to Kirby, who added that “this would have concerning security implications for the Korean Peninsula and the Indo-Pacific region.”

Kirby said Washington is still assessing the impact of the recent strikes that it said involved North Korean missiles.

"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 told the press briefing.

In a separate statement, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, blasted the North and Russia for “blatantly” violating the United Nations arms embargo on the North.

“The United States will continue to work with allies and partners to identify, expose, and counter the Russian government's attempts to acquire military equipment from the DPRK or any state that is prepared to support the Kremlin's war in Ukraine,” she said, adding that Washington will “keep strengthening cooperation to address the DPRK’s weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs.”

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]