The first group of North Korean trainers from one of the country’s leading military academies are headed to Russia.
The visit marks the first military exchange with Russia since the two countries signed a new military agreement during Vladimir Putin’s visit to North Korea last month.
As part of their mutual support deal, the two countries agreed they would “provide military and other assistance without delay by all means at its disposal.”
North Korean media claimed that the military trainers’ delegation is led by the head of Kim Il Sung Military University, Kim Geum Chol.
Pyongyang media has not provided further information on the visit, which comes just weeks after the new partnership agreement was signed.
Jonah Leff, executive director of Conflict Armament Research, gave the council a detailed analysis of the remnants of the missile that struck Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, on January 2.
He said the organisation documented the missile’s rocket motor, its tail section and almost 300 components manufactured by 26 companies from eight countries and territories, and it determined the missile was either a KN-23 or KN-24 manufactured in 2023 in the DPRK.
Mr Leff said: “Following the initial documentation, our teams inspected three additional identical DPRK missiles that struck Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia earlier this year.”
They also observed additional conventional weapons, including an artillery rocket produced in 1977, “that had been seized on the front lines and had not been observed on the battlefield previously in Ukraine” that were manufactured by Pyongyang.
