UN monitors say North Korean missile struck Ukraine’s Kharkiv

Expert body tells UN Security Council the weapon’s discovery suggests a violation of international sanctions on Pyongyang.

The debris from a missile that landed in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on January 2 was from a North Korean Hwasong-11 series ballistic missile, United Nations sanctions monitors told a Security Council (UNSC) committee in a report seen by the Reuters news agency on Monday.

In the 32-page report, the UN sanctions monitors concluded that “debris recovered from a missile that landed in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on 2 January 2024 derives from a DPRK Hwasong-11 series missile” and is in violation of the arms embargo on North Korea.

Formally known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), North Korea has been under UN sanctions for its ballistic missile and nuclear programmes since 2006, and those measures have been strengthened over the years.

Three sanctions monitors travelled to Ukraine earlier this month to inspect the debris and found no evidence that the missile was made by Russia. They “could not independently identify from where the missile was launched, nor by whom”.

“Information on the trajectory provided by Ukrainian authorities indicates it was launched within the territory of the Russian Federation,” they wrote in an April 25 report to the UNSC’s North Korea sanctions committee.