UN condemns ballistic missile transfers between North Korea and Russia

French ambassador to the UN and Security Council President for the month, Nicolas de Riviere, at UN headquarters in New York on January 10. AFP

The US and six other nations joined Ukraine on Wednesday in condemning ballistic missile transfers between North Korea and Russia, in breach of UN Security Council resolutions.

“Each violation makes the world a much more dangerous place,” read the joint statement by permanent Council members Britain, France and the US, non-permanent members Malta, Slovenia and South Korea, as well as Japan and Ukraine.

"And a permanent Security Council member that willingly engages in these violations demonstrates a clear exploitation of its position."

The US deputy representative, Robert Wood, said Russia's breaches of UN resolutions were abhorrent and undermine the global non-proliferation regime.

He said Russian forces have used North Korean ballistic missiles in Ukraine several times and expects Russia will use more missiles to destroy more critical infrastructure, and kill Ukrainian civilians.

Mr Wood urged member states to make it clear that the Russian Federation's actions are “unacceptable, even more so as a permanent member of this council”.

South Korea’s representative to the UN, Hwang Joon-kook, told Council members that by exporting missiles to Russia, North Korea is using Ukraine as a “test site of its nuclear capable missiles in disregard of Ukraine's territorial integrity and the safety of the Ukrainian people”.

Short-range missiles provided by North Korea were fired into Ukraine in December and January, Mr Hwang said, calling it a “wanton disregard of Ukraine's territorial integrity".

He blamed the Council's “inaction” for emboldening the Pyongyang regime and called for reining in “the unbridled offender before it is too late”.

Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, criticised his “western colleagues” for convening the meeting as a “box-ticking exercise so that they cynically … rattle off those same anti-Russian propaganda assertions".

He said the West distinguishes between “important civilians” and those whose “lives are deemed collateral damage”.

Mr Nebenzya accused the US of spreading wrong information “without going through the trouble of checking this beforehand”.

This month, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Russia used short-range ballistic missiles from North Korea to conduct strikes against Ukraine, quoting newly declassified intelligence.

North Korea has been under a UN arms embargo since it first tested a nuclear bomb in 2006.

UN Security Council resolutions – approved with Russian support – ban countries from trading weapons or other military equipment with North Korea.

Moscow and Pyongyang have previously denied conducting any arms deals but vowed last year to deepen military relations.