Ukraine: White House accuses North Korea of secretly sending artillery to Russia

Russia's attacks on Ukrainian cities have already involved weapons from one rogue state  - in the form of drones from Iran. The White House now says another is involved, ITV News Global Security Editor Rohit Kachroo reports from Kyiv

According to the latest American intelligence, North Korea is secretly shipping artillery shells to Russia.

The White House is also becoming in its words, "increasingly concerned," about a potential Russian nuclear strike on Ukraine.

Footage released by the Russian military appears to show its artillery systems in action against the Ukrainian army.

But a sharp statement from Moscow on Wednesday seemed to raise the stakes.

Russia's foreign ministry said it could "hypothetically" use nuclear weapons defensively if the existence of the state is threatened.

In meetings on Wednesday, Putin spoke of the need to improve the production of military equipment as Russia warned that the nuclear powers are on the brink of a different armed conflict.

Russia's military leaders are thought by the Americans to have discussed when and how they might use a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine.

And they say Russia has now turned to its ally North Korea to ship in artillery shells.

It's unlikely that nine months ago, Russia's military planners would have thought they'd need to rely on these imports.

But the worry is battlefield failure might lead to unpredictable responses.

It came as North Korea fired more than 20 missiles - forcing residents of a South Korean island to evacuate underground after some of them landed close to their sea border.

After the air raid sirens had finished blaring, South Korea quickly responded by launching its own missiles in the same border area.

The launches came hours after nuclear threats from North Korea aimed at forcing the US and South Korea to “pay the most horrible price in history” in protest over ongoing South Korean-US military drills, which Pyongyang views as an invasion rehearsal.

The White House maintained that the United States has no hostile intent toward North Korea and vowed to work with allies to curb North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

The North’s barrage of missile tests also came as world attention was focused on South Korea following a weekend Halloween tragedy that saw more than 150 people killed in a crowd surge in Seoul in what was the country’s largest disaster in years.

South Korea’s military has said at least 23 missiles were launched by North Korea - 17 in the morning and six in the afternoon.

It said the weapons were all short-range ballistic missiles or suspected surface-to-air missiles.

Also Wednesday, North Korea fired about 100 artillery shells into an eastern maritime buffer zone the Koreas created in 2018 to reduce tensions, according to South Korea’s military.

The 23 missiles launched is a record number of daily missile tests by North Korea, some experts say.

One of the ballistic missiles was flying toward South Korea’s Ulleung island before it eventually landed 167 kilometres northwest of the island.

South Korea’s military issued an air raid alert on the island.

Hours later, South Korea’s military said it lifted the air raid alert on the island.

South Korea’s transport ministry said it has closed some air routes above the country’s eastern waters until Thursday morning in the wake of the North Korean launches.

In an emergency meeting, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered officials to take swift unspecified steps to make North Korea face consequences for its provocation.

He said he would consider the North Korean missile’s landing near the border “a virtual violation of (our) territorial waters.”

Japanese Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada said at least two ballistic missiles fired by North Korea showed a possibly “irregular” trajectory.

This suggests the missiles were the North’s highly manoeuvrable, nuclear-capable KN-23 missile, which was modelled on Russia’s Iskander missile.

Analyst Cheong Seong-Chang at the private Sejong Institute in South Korea said the danger of armed clashes between the Koreas off their western or eastern coasts is increasing.

He said South Korea needs to make “proportional responses” to North Korean provocations, not “overwhelming responses,” to prevent tensions from spiralling out of control and possibly leading the North to use its tactical nuclear weapons.

Some experts still doubt North Korea would use nuclear weapons first in the face of US and South Korean forces.

In a statement released early Wednesday, Pak Jong Chon, a secretary of the ruling Workers’ Party who is considered a close confidant of leader Kim Jong Un, called the Vigilant Storm air force drills “aggressive and provocative.”

“If the US and South Korea attempt to use armed forces against (North Korea) without any fear, the special means of the (North’s) armed forces will carry out their strategic mission without delay,” Pak said, in an apparent reference to his country’s nuclear weapons.

“The US and South Korea will have to face a terrible case and pay the most horrible price in history,” he said.

US and South Korean officials have continually said their drills are defensive in nature and that they have no intentions of attacking North Korea.

This year's Vigilant Storm military exercises are the largest-ever for the annual fall manoeuvres, the US Indo-Pacific Command said.

The round-the-clock drills, which began October 31, are to continue through November 4 and include warfighting tactics both in the air and on the ground.

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