U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russia has acquired ballistic missiles from North Korea and is seeking close-range ballistic missiles from Iran as Moscow struggles to replenish supplies for its war with Ukraine, the White House said Thursday.
Recently declassified intelligence found that North Korea has provided Russia with ballistic missile launchers and several ballistic missiles, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
Russian forces fired at least one of those ballistic missiles into Ukraine on December 30 and it landed in an open field in the Zaporizhzhia region, he said.
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The White House in October said that North Korea delivered more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions to Russia.
Relations between Russia and North Korea go back to the 1948 foundation of North Korea. Soviet officials installed a young and ambitious nationalist, Kim Il Sung, the late grandfather of current leader Kim Jong Un, as the country’s first ruler. Soviet aid shipments were crucial in keeping North Korea’s economy afloat for decades before the disintegration of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.
Kim traveled to Russia in September to meet President Vladimir Putin and visit key military sites.
The Biden administration says Iran has provided Russia with attack drones.
