The news is disturbing. Most recently, the Ukrainian authorities have announced that they have detected an increase in the precision of North Korean missiles used by Russia in its attacks against Ukraine since the end of December. According to the British agency Reuterstwo high -ranking Ukrainian sources indicated that these missiles are now hitting targets with a precision of 50 to 100 meters, against 1 to 3 kilometers at the start of the war. Or a significant improvement in relation to previous attacks.
A Ukrainian military source has corroborated these results, stressing the notable precision of more than 20 North Korean ballistic missiles launched against Ukraine in recent weeks. These observations were also confirmed by a senior government official. In addition, if the Russian missile strikes are frequent and murderous, the Ukrainian authorities do not disclose the targets or the dates of those carried out by North Korean missiles.
Best navigation system
How to explain such changes in precision? According to military sources contacted by Reuters, the forensic analyzes carried out on the debris of missiles did not make it possible to identify changes in the design of missiles, even if there were very little debris to analyze. Two explanations are then possible. The first would be that missiles are now equipped with better navigation systems. The second that they have a steering mechanism to facilitate maneuvers.
According to the military expert Yang UK, other factors could improve precision, in particular better targeting information for crews, new components of the guidance system provided by Russia or even data -based improvements and experience that North Korean scientists collected during the war.
Russia began to draw ballistic missiles from short North Korean range K-23, K-23A and K-24 to Ukraine towards the end of 2023 and has since fired a hundred, according to the Ukrainian authorities. Last October, South Korea, at the forefront of northern military observations, declared that Pyongyang had provided more than “1,000 missiles” in Russia, in addition to the troops there to fight in Ukraine. North Korean ballistic missiles represent only a small part of the Russian missile strikes, according to the Ukrainian authorities. Nevertheless, they have a military load that can reach a ton and a range of 800 kilometers. Where the ISKANDER-M, an equivalent Russian missile, has a smaller payload and has a shorter range of 500 kilometers.
Threats to Japan, the United States, South Korea
North Korea’s military programs have developed rapidly in recent years, including short and medium -range missiles which, according to Pyongyang, can be equipped with nuclear warheads. However, until its involvement in Ukraine, the country, long isolated, had never tested these new weapons in combat.
In his Bulletin number 122dated last summer (2024), the Foundation for Strategic Research indicated that in matters of deterrence, “these exports and this exhibition of missiles obviously have the first effect of showing the potential of the North Korean forces, the systems in question having the characteristic of being able to take nuclear weapons “. The multiplication of strikes in North Korea is increasingly disturbing for South Korea and the United States, which are investing strongly in anti-missile defense.
In addition, many experts warn that the progress observed in North Korean ballistic missiles are a significant threat. Yang UK, an armament expert at the Asan Institute for Seoul political studies, told Reuters that such improvements in North Korean missile capacities had disturbing implications for the country’s potential to threaten South Korea, Japan and the United States or to sell improved weapons to “bankrupt” states or to armed groups. “This can have a major impact on the stability of the region and the world,” he continues.