A
representative from the prosecutor's office shows a part of an
unidentified missile, which Ukrainian authorities believe to be made in
North Korea and was used in a strike in Kharkiv earlier this week, amid
Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine January 6, 2024.
REUTERS/Vyacheslav Madiyevskyy/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Exclusive: Ukraine sees marked improvement in accuracy of Russia's North Korean missiles
KYIV,
Feb 6 (Reuters) - North Korean ballistic missiles fired at Ukraine by
Russian forces since late December have been far more precise than
salvos of the weapons launched over the past year, two senior Ukrainian
sources told Reuters.
At
a time when Moscow's burgeoning ties with Pyongyang are causing alarm
from Washington to Seoul, the increase in accuracy - to within 50-100m
of the intended target - suggests North Korea is successfully using the
battlefield to test its missile technology, the sources said.
A
military source, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive
information, described a marked improvement in the precision in all the
more than 20 North Korean ballistic missiles that hit Ukraine over the
past several weeks. A second source, a senior government official
familiar with the issue, confirmed the findings when asked by Reuters.
Yang
Uk, a weapons expert at Seoul's Asan Institute for Policy Studies, said
such improvements in North Korean missile capabilities have troubling
implications for its potential to threaten South Korea, Japan and the
United States or sell upgraded weapons to "failed" states or armed
groups.
"That can have a major impact on stability in the region and the world," he said, in response to questions for this story.
North
Korea's military programmes have developed rapidly in recent years,
including short- and intermediate-range missiles that Pyongyang says can
be tipped with nuclear warheads. However, until its involvement in
Ukraine, the long-isolated nation had never tested the new weapons in
combat.
Ukraine's
defence ministry did not respond to requests for comment. Ukraine does
not usually disclose the outcome of Russian missile and drone strikes on
military targets.
The
defence ministries in Russia and South Korea, as well as South Korea's
National Intelligence Service, did not respond to Reuters questions.
The
North Korean embassy in London did not answer calls seeking comment or
respond to a voicemail. The country's mission at the U.N. did not
respond to questions. North Korea and Russia have denied any arms deals
though their leaders pledged closer military cooperation when they met
in September in Russia's far east.
The U.S. Pentagon and U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment.
'CUSTOMER FEEDBACK'
Military
expert Yang said his security contacts in Ukraine had also
independently reported improvements in the latest batches of North
Korean missiles.
"As
they are making missiles and getting feedback from the customers – the
Russian army - then they have more experience making more reliable
missiles," he said.
The sources and Yang said it was not clear what modifications North Korea had made.
The
military source said forensic analysis conducted on debris had not
identified changes to the design of the missiles, although there had
been very little debris left to analyse.
Two
possible explanations were the missiles being fitted with better
navigation systems or with a steering mechanism to help manoeuvring, the
source said.
According
to Yang, other factors that could improve accuracy include better
targeting information for crews, new guidance system components provided
by Russia and improvements based on the data and experience North
Korean scientists have gathered in the war.
Earlier
in the war, the missiles had an accuracy of 1-3 kilometres, but the
most recent had an accuracy of between 50 and 100 metres, the military
source said in an interview in Kyiv on Jan. 27, disclosing a previously
unreported assessment for the first time.
The
source declined to publicly disclose what had been targeted, where the
missiles were fired from or the dates of the attacks, citing military
secrecy.
Russia
began firing North Korean K-23, K-23A and K-24 short-range ballistic
missiles at Ukraine towards the end of 2023 and has since fired around
100, the source said. Kyiv says Russia has also received millions of
artillery shells and thousands of troops from Pyongyang to help its war
effort.
North Korea is expanding a complex that manufactures K-23 missiles, Reuters reported in November.
In February 2024, Ukraine's top prosecutor cast doubt on the reliability
of North Korea's little-known weaponry, saying that only two out of 24
missiles that had been fired up to that point had been "relatively
accurate."
The
advance in the weapons' precision appeared suddenly, the source said,
after months of inaccurate launches. The new assessment was based on
where the missiles - identified as North Korean through examinations at
blast sites - fell in relation to the presumed target in the vicinity,
the source said.
Reuters could not independently verify the sources' assessment.
BIGGER PAYLOAD
Though
North Korean ballistic missiles account for only a small portion of
Russia's missile strikes they carry a large warhead of up to one tonne
and have a range of up to 800 km, the military source said. The
Iskander-M, an equivalent Russian missile, carries a smaller payload and
has a shorter range of 500 km.
Moscow
and Pyongyang have rapidly grown closer since 2023 when Russia's
then-defence minister visited North Korea. The two powers signed a
treaty on "Comprehensive Strategic Partnership" last year.
When then-U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Seoul in November, he warned that Pyongyang's deepening ties with Moscow were a threat to global non-proliferation regimes.
South Korea's national security adviser Shin Won-sik said in November that Russia had provided North Korea with anti-air missiles and air defence equipment in return for troops and weapons supplies.
Moscow
may also be assisting North Korea with missile parts and financial
support, as well as space technology, South Korea's intelligence agency
has said.
"North Korea is getting something," Yang said.
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Reporting by Tom Balmforth in Kyiv and Josh Smith in Seoul; Additional reporting by Jonathan Landay and Idrees Ali in Washington; editing by Mike Collett-White and Frank Jack Daniel