Russia's use of North Korean missiles in Ukraine will help the US figure out how effective they really are

Fragments of what may be North Korean missiles in Kharkiv, Ukraine.

Global Images Ukraine/Getty Images

• Russia fired North Korean missiles at Ukraine on December 30, January 2 and 4, per South Korea.
• Their use will help the US figure out how effective they are, military analysts said.
• Missile wreckage will reveal details that the West will use to improve its own weapons, they said.

Russia's use of North Korean missiles in Ukraine will help us figure out how effective they actually are on the battlefield, military analysts said.

South Korea's ambassador to the UN accused North Korea of using Ukraine as a "test site" for its nuclear-capable missiles on Wednesday.

Joonkook Hwang said Russia used them in attacks on December 30, January 2, and January 4.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby also said Russia had acquired "several dozen" ballistic missiles from North Korea and used them in two separate attacks on December 30 and January 2.

Ramon Pacheco Pardo, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said Russia's use of these missiles presented a unique opportunity to gain valuable information on these missiles in a battle scenario.

"Obviously, that's very helpful in any case, because if there is a war in the Korean peninsula, North Korea will be using these missiles," Pardo told Business Insider.

North Korea has been testing a wide range of ballistic and cruise missiles since 2017, launching 68 missiles in 2022, according to the North Korea Missile Test Tracker maintained by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.

The US, South Korea, and Japan have been sharing intelligence on these missiles, but have never seen them deployed in a conflict.

Now that Russia is launching them in Ukraine, the US and North Korea's neighbors will be able to assess their accuracy, range, hit rate, launch failure rate, and Ukraine's ability to intercept them in a real-world battle scenario, Pardo said.

"If Ukraine, for example, proves more successful in shooting down North Korean missiles compared to Russian ones, then we can assume that North Korean technology is not as advanced," he said.

David Albright, president of the non-profit Institute for Science and International Security in Washington DC, echoed those comments.

He added that missile wreckage will provide information on the origin and quality of components and their designs.

"If parts and/or raw materials can be identified and assessed, it will be significant," he told BI.

That could also help improve Western-made air defense systems, including the US's Patriot, to counter North Korea's missile threat, said Fabian Hinz, a research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank.

"Having a chance to look at them up close would be really valuable," he told Newsweek.

Ukraine has already started analyzing what it believes to be debris from a North Korean missile.

Ukraine's prosecutor-general, Andriy Kostin, told the Ukrainian state broadcaster Suspilne that a preliminary examination confirmed a missile fired at central Kharkiv on January 2 was developed in North Korea, per a translation provided by Meduza.

A joint statement by the US and 50 of its allies condemning their use said Russia's use of North Korea's ballistic missiles in Ukraine "provides valuable technical and military insights" to the regime.

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