Reuters: North Korea improved the accuracy of its missiles due to the war against Ukraine

North Korean ballistic missiles have become much more accurate since late December 2024. This suggests that the DPRK is using the war in Ukraine to refine its missiles and test weapons.

Reuters reports this, citing two high-ranking sources in Ukraine.

In the past few weeks, Russian forces have fired more than 20 North Korean ballistic missiles into Ukraine. All of them have been significantly more accurate than before. The missilesʼ accuracy has increased to 50-100 meters, Reuters sources said. Previously, it was 1-3 kilometers.

Before participating in the war against Ukraine, North Korea had no opportunity to test its own weapons in real war conditions. But now they are producing missiles and receiving feedback from the customer, the Russian army, so they are gaining the experience necessary to create better missiles.

Yang Wook, a weapons expert at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul, said his sources in Ukraine told him that the latest batches of missiles that North Korea transferred to Russia were improved. It is not yet clear what changes North Korea has made. They may have been designed with improved navigation systems or steering mechanisms to make them easier to maneuver.

Russia began firing North Korean short-range ballistic missiles, the KN-23, KN-23A and KN-24, at Ukraine in late 2023 and has since fired about 100 rounds, one of the sources told Reuters. The Korean missiles have a longer range than similar Russian Iskander-M ballistic missiles, he said.

In February 2024, former Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andriy Kostin said that Russia launched 24 missiles from North Korea into Ukraine. At that time, only two hit the given coordinates relatively accurately. The rest had errors of several kilometers, and some exploded in the air.

Participation of the DPRK military in the war in Ukraine

Ukrainian intelligence reported on October 24, 2024, that the first soldiers from the DPRK had already arrived at the front — in the Kursk region. There are approximately 12 000 soldiers, including 500 officers and three generals.

According to sources in the American newspaper The New York Times, Russia has assembled a group of 50 000 soldiers for an offensive in the Kursk region. The North Koreans are being trained in artillery strikes, basic infantry tactics and, most importantly, trench clearing, American officials say. This means that at least some of the North Korean soldiers will be used in frontal attacks on Ukrainian positions.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that more than 3 000 soldiers from the DPRK have already been killed or wounded. South Korean intelligence believes that 300 soldiers have been killed in the war and almost 2 700 have been wounded.

Zelensky first reported on December 27, 2024, that the Defense Forces had captured North Korean soldiers, but then they died of wounds. The North Korean soldiers were captured for the second time in January 2025. Ukraine is ready to exchange them for its own soldiers.

According to the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate (known as GUR) Kyrylo Budanov as of February 2025, 8 000 North Korean fighters are still fighting in Kursk, but in reduced numbers.

For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine please follow us on X.