Ukrainian authorities gave CNN rare access to fragments of the weapons’ wreckage, which show the apparent extent of manufacturing circuits passing through companies in the West.
Ukraine is increasingly being hit by Russian ballistic missile attacks, about a third of which are using North Korean weapons that can only fly because they run on Western circuits, obtained despite sanctions, according to Ukrainian military officials.
Russia has fired around 60 North Korean KN-23 missiles at Ukraine this year, according to a Ukrainian defense official. This number represents almost one in three of the 194 ballistic missiles fired to date in 2024, according to a CNN tally of publicly acknowledged attacks by the Ukrainian air force.
In August and September there was an increase in ballistic missile attacks, when Ukraine began to publicly disclose the use of the KN-23.
“Since the spring, Russia has been using ballistic missiles and attack drones much more to attack Ukraine. And fewer cruise missiles,” the acting head of communications for the Ukrainian Air Force, Yuriy Ignat, told CNN.
These less sophisticated missiles are part of North Korea’s growing support for Moscow, which also includes about 11,000 North Korean troops deployed to Russia’s Kursk region.
As the role of North Korean missiles becomes clear, Ukrainian authorities have given CNN rare access to fragments of the weapons’ wreckage, which show the apparent extent of U.S. and European-made or -designed circuitry in their missile systems. guidance.
Investigators from the Kiev Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise examine the wreckage of the KN-23 missiles that Russia used to attack Ukraine. CNN
The components used in North Korean missiles are produced by nine Western manufacturers, including companies based in the United States, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, according to a recent report by the Independent Anti-Corruption Commission of Ukraine (NAKO), an organization of civil society. Some parts of the KN-23/24 missiles they analyzed were produced in 2023, suggesting rapid delivery to North Korea.
CNN visited a warehouse where Ukrainian government investigators are sifting through the wreckage, looking for small details that offer clues about the production of these deadly weapons.
The warehouse was full of damaged drones and burned missile parts. In different buildings, hundreds of microchips were carefully separated into folders named after various weapons used by Russia – “Shahed”, “Iskander” and “KN-23”.
It’s a grim place and investigators are well aware that components were recovered from the rubble of buildings where lives were lost. North Korean missile strikes have killed at least 28 people and injured 213 this year, the Ukrainian prosecutor general told CNN.
Ukrainian investigators have found evidence that the components used in North Korean missiles are produced by at least nine Western manufacturers. CNN has blurred parts of this image. CNN
“Everything that works to guide the missile, to make it fly, are foreign components. All electronics are foreign. There is nothing Korean,” said Andriy Kulchytskyi, director of the Military Research Laboratory at the Kiev Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise.
“The only thing Korean is metal, which rusts and corrodes quickly,” he added.
A Ukrainian Secret Defense Service official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said their investigations are hampered by the damage caused to the missile fragments, but that it is still possible to determine that “the vast majority of the components are Western. Probably 70% are Americans, from well-known companies […] They also use components made in Germany and Switzerland.”
A report published earlier this year by the British research organization Conflict Armament Research, or CAR, concluded that 75% of the components in one of the first North Korean missiles used to attack Ukraine were from U.S.-based companies.
Sanctioned goods pass through China
According to weapons tracing experts, there is no reliable information on exactly how the components arrive in North Korea. But all signs point to China as the likely channel, experts say.
“We were able to locate some of these components and the last known depositories are Chinese companies,” said Damien Spleeters, deputy director of operations at CAR, which works to independently document misappropriated weapons. This means that Chinese companies purchased components from manufacturers and a series of intermediaries.
“Diversion rarely happens at the factory that produces the components,” he told CNN.
CAR has a policy of not “naming and shaming” specific manufacturers because there is no evidence that the companies deliberately sent parts to North Korea.
“Some parts of these components may actually be fake and made in China,” said Victoria Vyshnivska, a senior researcher at NAKO. “But we cannot be 100% sure,” he added, as the companies in question do not often respond to questions.
A manufacturer was able to provide NAKO with evidence that a low-value electronic component found in a North Korean missile was counterfeit.
Meanwhile, Vyshnivska said, some other manufacturers are choosing not to pursue better control of their exports, since more detailed record keeping and company audits would incur costs. “It’s ignorance that, sometimes, is perhaps motivated by money,” he assured CNN.
Damaged residential buildings on the outskirts of Kiev after a Russian attack with two KN-23 ballistic missiles on August 18, 2024. Danylo Antoniuk/Anadolu/Getty Images
CAR and others consider intermediary distribution companies – not manufacturers – to be the main problem.
There are more than 250 companies whose components have been identified in North Korean missiles, according to CAR. But most of these electronic components are sold to five main distributors, all of which are based in the United States and Canada. CAR is asking policymakers to focus more efforts on regulating these distribution companies.
The United States Department of Commerce has already stepped up its action against entities and shell companies that have shipped sanctioned goods to Russia and Belarus.
Ukrainian officials argue that weak enforcement of the sanctions regime by Western countries is one of the main problems.
Vladyslav Vlasiuk, the Ukrainian president’s commissioner for sanctions policy, said he hopes the new Trump administration will seek greater control over illicit trade.
“No manufacturing entity has yet been held responsible for any of these supplies,” he told CNN. “We think if any of these manufacturers were held responsible for the amount of microelectronics found in, say, Russian missiles hitting Ukraine, they would start doing more about it.”
This reflects the sentiment of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which earlier this year criticized U.S. manufacturers for not doing enough to vet potential buyers despite having adequate “resources, financing and expertise.”
“Our conclusions reveal a clear lack of interest in evaluating and improving companies’ compliance practices and, in particular, in controlling distributors and intermediaries,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) in September.
Components also continue to be diverted to Iran and Russia directly, according to the Ukrainian intelligence official.
“Russia uses Western components across the entire segment of lethal weapons and reconnaissance drones,” the Defense Intelligence official told CNN, noting that the downing of one of Russia’s heavy drones, the ‘Okhotnik,’ revealed that it it was made mainly of American components. “We also need to do adequate work to close these supply channels,” he said.
