The UN Security Council talked about the North Korean missiles used by Russia in Ukraine and the news of the Russia-Ukraine war

North Korea is capable of producing ballistic missiles and supplies to Russia Following the discovery of North Korean missile remnants on a Ukrainian battlefield, researchers told the UN Security Council (UNSC) that they would be launched in Ukraine within months.

Jonah Leff, head of the UK-based Conflict Armaments Research, which tracks weapons used in conflicts, including Russia’s war against Ukraine, told the UN Security Council on Wednesday that one missile was among the remains of four missiles fired from North Korea in July and August in Ukraine. It indicated that it was produced in 2024.

“This is the first public evidence that the missiles were manufactured in North Korea and used in Ukraine for months, not years,” Leff told the council.

In June, Leff told the UN Security Council that his agency had “undoubtedly” determined that ballistic missile debris found in Ukraine earlier this year was from a North Korean-made missile.

The report on Russia’s use of North Korean missiles in Ukraine comes as Pyongyang says its military alliance with Russia is “very effective” in deterring the US and its “vassal forces”.

In a statement issued by the official Korean Central News Agency on Thursday, an unnamed spokesman of the North Korean Foreign Ministry said that Washington and its allies are prolonging the war in Ukraine and destabilizing the security situation in Europe and the Asia Pacific region.

The official said the “madness” of the response by “enemy forces” shows that increased cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow is “preventing the US and the West from expanding their malign influence.”

Russia and North Korea recently ratified a mutual defense pact and more 10,000 North Korean soldiers According to US and South Korean officials, it was deployed to help Russia in its war against Ukraine.

Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang has confirmed the presence of North Korean troops in Russia. Thursday’s statement did not mention North Korea’s intervention in Ukraine and the heavy losses Ukrainian and US officials said North Korean troops suffered in fighting in Russia’s Kursk region.

The country’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) said at least 100 North Korean soldiers have been killed and nearly 1,000 wounded in the war so far, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported on Thursday.

The NIS told South Korean lawmakers in a closed-door meeting that North Korea’s inexperienced troops are being used by Russia as a “front-line attack force” and are suffering casualties because they are unfamiliar with the terrain and “lack the ability to respond to drone attacks.” ” by Ukrainian forces.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a social network post over the weekend that the losses caused by North Korean troops are “already noticeable”. On Monday, South Korea, the United States, the European Union and eight other countries signed a joint statement condemning North Korea’s increased involvement in Russia’s war in Ukraine. Indo-Pacific Security”.

The United States sounded the alarm at a meeting of the UN Security Council on Wednesday that Russia was close to accepting a nuclear-armed North Korea.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said: “We are alarmingly concerned that Russia may be close to accepting North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, reversing Moscow’s decades-long commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”

“We believe that Moscow will not only refrain from criticizing Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons development, but will further block the adoption of sanctions or resolutions condemning North Korea’s destabilizing behavior.”

Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vasili Nebenzia, did not refer to North Korea’s nuclear program during his speech at the Council. He defended increased cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang as a sovereign right of Russia.

“Russia’s cooperation with the DPRK… is in accordance with the norms of international law, it does not violate them,” he said, referring to North Korea by its official name.

“It is not directed against any third country. This does not pose any threat to the states of the region and the international community, and we will certainly continue this kind of cooperation.”