Jeong Park, a senior U.S. official dealing with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) at the State Department, has reported at least 10 cases of North Korean missiles being used on the battlefield in Ukraine. She said this in an interview with the Voice of America, UNN reports .
The DPRK sells weapons to Russia so that Russia can carry out an illegal brutal attack on Ukraine, kill Ukrainians, destroy Ukrainian infrastructure and simply destroy lives. We are very concerned about this. There have been at least 10 cases of the use of DPRK missiles on the battlefield. So, we are very concerned about what this means for the proliferation of weapons in the future, and how it makes the situation worse.
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Park expressed deep concern over the strengthening of ties between Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, and the DPRK.
In particular, on Monday, the United States announced that North Korea had shipped at least 10,000 containers of military munitions to Russia in support of its war in Ukraine.
We know that there were at least 10,000 containers that went from the DPRK to Russia. And the DPRK is not doing this for free. There are almost certainly things that the DPRK wants in return. And we are concerned about what might happen on the other side. We're also concerned about what the DPRK might learn from Russia's use of these weapons and ballistic missiles on the battlefield, and how that might embolden and/or help the DPRK further advance its weapons program.
In addition, the State Department is concerned about the incident on Monday, when North Korea launched several ballistic missiles into the sea during the visit of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to Seoul, where he participated in the Summit for Democracy organized by South Korean President Yun Suk-yol.
Despite the "sad" and "disturbing" events, Park expressed confidence that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has no plans to attack Washington's allies, South Korea and Japan.