Russia Attacks Kyiv With The North Korean KN-23 Missile. What Do We Know About It?

In just one week, the “Russian army struck more than 30 missiles and more than 800 guided aerial bombs” announced Zelenskyy. On August 11th, Russia attacked Ukraine with Shahed drones and missiles, one being the North Korean KN-23 that killed a four-year-old son and his father. Just a few days before, Russia sent the same variant of the missile to Kyiv but it is thought to have exploded mid-air over Brovary, a district just outside of Kyiv city.

North Korean Hwasong-11 (KN-23)

The North Korean KN-23, officially called the Hwasong-11Ga, is a ballistic missile with specifications similar to the Russian Iskander-M and South Korean Hyunmoo-2B. Given its similarities to the Iskander, analysts speculate that the KN-23 was built with foreign assistance.

The KN-23 can carry up to 500 kg warhead traveling up to 650km (with a lighter payload). It’s 7.5 meters in length and just like the Iskander, the missile's quasi-ballistic trajectory can be challenging for air defense. 

A quasi-ballistic missile switches from a ballistic to a flat trajectory following its launch. The KN-23 has fins which facilitates maneuver making the flight path unpredictable and it can fly at a low altitude making it more difficult to detect. 

How accurate is the KN-23?

Air Force Commander Mykola Oleschuk reported that “although they (KN-23) rarely achieve the desired goals, they pose a serious threat to the population."

Attacks by North Korean weapons began December 30, 2023, killing 24 people, injuring 115, and damaging residential buildings and industrial facilities. Attacks against Ukraine with the KN-23 continued until the end of February 2024, thereafter, having a 5 month hiatus. However, Russia has recently resumed their attacks against Ukraine with the KN-23.

In May 2024,The Office of the Prosecutor General announced that they’d examined debris found from 21 of around 50 KN-23s launched against Ukraine between late December 2023 to late February 2024. Ukraine's top prosecutor, Andriy Kostin, told Reuters that their failure rate appeared to be high.

They concluded that more than half of the launched KN-23’s lost their flight trajectory during flight and likely exploded mid-air. Their launch was recorded, but no debris was found. 

The pause in attacks with the KN-23 and their high fail rate suggested that they, (North Korea), were likely improving the quality or developing new methods of using this missile.

What are the main concerns of the KN-23?

Conflict Armament Research (CAR) also analyzed the debris from the Kharkiv wreckage below and found that the missile was ‘bursting with the latest foreign technology. Most of the electronic parts had been manufactured in the US and Europe over the past few years. There was even a US computer chip made as recently as March 2023’ they told the BBC.

In a matter of months, components were illegally brought into North Korea, assembled within the weapon, shipped to Russia to be launched against Ukraine. 

"This was the biggest surprise, that despite being under severe sanctions for almost two decades, North Korea is still managing to get its hands on all it needs to make its weapons, and with extraordinary speed," said Damien Spleeters, the deputy director at CAR.

UK Defense Intelligence report for UN experts, seen by the Guardian, showed three Russian cargo ships loading containers at North Korean ports between September and December of 2023—before going back to Russian ports, before targeting Ukraine at the end of December and January.

North Korea has around 500,000 workers and 300 defense industry factories and can produce ammunition and weaponry, and even deliver them, at extremely timely rates. 

President Zelenskyy said after August 11ths attack that “Pyrotechnicians continue to work to establish the exact data on this rocket” so its unknown whether it’s been developed. On August the 6th 2024, the KN-23 fired towards Kyiv exploded midair above Brovary, suggesting that it’s still failing. But as we saw on August 11th, can still have drastic consequences killing innocent civilians.

A dangerous alliance of authoritarian powers:

Russia and North Korea have cemented their relationship in a variety of ways forming a rather dangerous ‘alliance of authoritarian powers.’ North Korea began sending weapons and artillery to Russia in a food-for-artillery exchange and recently, Vladimir Putin and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un signed a ‘strategic partnership agreement’ together. Which sparked concern amongst politicians worldwide, Senators from the US Congress introduced a bill calling to officially designate Russia as “a state sponsor of terrorism”. 

“Russia deserves to be in this club of atrocity-committing killers,” Richard Blumenthal a Democrat Senate declared, as he held up a photo of Putin and Kim Jong Un. “Two of the most autocratic, atrocity-committing leaders in the world standing together—terrorist sponsors. Russia has deeply earned the designation to be a state sponsor of terrorism.”

There is no doubt that their relationship is stronger than ever. This alliance of authoritarian powers is undoubtedly a dangerous one, both with elitist military minds and home to nuclear weapons.

Though the accuracy and quality of the KN-23 has been downplayed, North Korea and Russia are still able to get hold of foreign parts, develop and exchange weapons cheaply and at a large scale. It’s vital to remain vigilant and not to underestimate what they intend on producing and launching against Ukraine, next. 

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