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North Korean ballistic missiles once again rained down over Ukraine this week as the war with Russia continues to rage, prompting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to renew warnings that the threat posed by the Moscow-Pyongyang alliance is “extremely dangerous” for Europe and Asia alike.
“The longer this war continues on our territory, the more warfare technologies evolve, and the greater the threat will be to everyone,” Zelenskyy said Tuesday. “This must be addressed now, not when thousands of upgraded Shahed drones and ballistic missiles begin to threaten Seoul and Tokyo.”
Zelenskyy’s warning came just one day after Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, confirmed in an interview with The War Zone that Russia has significantly improved North Korea’s KN-23 ballistic missiles.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy lays flowers as he pays tribute to 12 people killed by the Russian ballistic missile in Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 25, 2025. (Ukrinform/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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Earlier this year, the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team – a U.N.-member group that includes the U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand and South Korea – confirmed late last month that Pyongyang not only supplied Moscow with more than 11,000 troops beginning last October, but also 9 million rounds of mixed artillery and multiple rocket launcher ammunition, a slew of weapons systems, and at least 100 ballistic missiles last year alone.
In May 2024, Ukrainian authorities reported that at least half of the North Korean-supplied ballistic missiles fired by Russia were missing their targets by malfunctioning and even exploding in midair.
On Monday, Budanov said the missiles are now hitting Ukrainian targets with “deadly accuracy” – an improvement that appears to have arisen following a June 2024 mutual defense pact between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un pose for a photo during a signing ceremony following bilateral talks in Pyongyang, North Korea, June 19, 2024. (Sputnik/Kristina Kormilitsyna/Kremlin via Reuters)
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Top Ukrainian officials are sounding the alarm that there is a clear exchange of North Korean troops and supplies for Russian technical knowhow – including developments it has learned from Iranian drone manufacturing.
“We are also tracking evidence that Russian-Iranian drone technologies have spread to North Korea,” Zelenskyy said Tuesday. “This is extremely dangerous both for Europe and for East and Southeast Asia.”
Similarly, Budanov said Pyongyang has agreed to produce Russian UVAs on North Korean territory utilizing developments in drone warfare that Moscow has obtained through Iran and its steady supply of Shahed drones.
“It will for sure bring changes in the military balance in the region between North Korea and South Korea,” the intelligence chief warned on Monday.
Upper floors of a nine-story residential building in the Dniprovskyi district are damaged by a Russian drone strike on March 23, 2025, in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Roman Petushkov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
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But North Korea’s increased knowledge of drone development and ballistic missiles could have far deadlier consequences when it comes to the nuclear-armed, anti-Western nation.
“Unfortunately, ballistic missiles… are carriers of nuclear payloads,” Budanov pointed out.
But when asked if Moscow is aiding North Korea’s nuclear program, the intelligence chief said, “Let’s say they had huge problems with the carriers of these missiles and the firing from their sea component. And Russians are helping them with this.”
