Direct proof of use
North Korean KN-23 / KN-24 missiles appear in the 2014 Russia-Ukraine War as transferred short-range ballistic missiles used by Russian forces against Ukraine. The first public U.S. attribution came on January 4, 2024, when the White House said North Korea had recently supplied Russia with ballistic-missile launchers and several ballistic missiles, and that Russian forces had launched at least one North Korean ballistic missile into Ukraine on December 30, 2023, followed by multiple missiles during the January 2, 2024 aerial bombardment.
The strongest physical record centers on Kharkiv. The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency compared open-source imagery of debris from the January 2, 2024 Kharkiv attack with North Korean state-media imagery and assessed that the debris visually matched North Korean ballistic missiles. Conflict Armament Research separately documented remnants from a ballistic missile that struck Kharkiv in early January 2024 and assessed that it was manufactured in North Korea and was probably a KN-23 or KN-24. A later field report by former UN Panel experts described their April 2024 inspection of wreckage from a DPRK missile fired into Ukraine in January 2024 and linked the inspected missile to the Hwasong-11 series, the family commonly associated with KN-23 and KN-24 designations.
Sources: Axios White House North Korean Missiles, DIA North Korea Missile Strikes, CAR Documenting North Korean Missile, UN Panel Experts DPRK Missile
Timeline
Public reporting and official statements place the transfer-and-use sequence in late 2023 and early 2024. IISS assessed in January 2024 that Russia had used a North Korean-designed short-range ballistic missile against Ukraine on December 30, 2023, with multiple missiles fired on January 2, 2024. The White House statement the same week described North Korean launchers and missiles delivered to Russia and identified December 30 and January 2 launches into Ukraine.
Forensic documentation followed the first public attributions. CAR documented the Kharkiv missile remnants in January 2024 and then reported in February 2024 that a DPRK-produced ballistic missile recovered in Ukraine contained more than 290 non-domestic electronic components. In September 2024, CAR reported the first public evidence that North Korean missiles produced in 2024 were being used in Ukraine. Ukraine's Defence Intelligence reported in November 2024 that Russia had received more than 100 KN-23/KN-24 missiles from North Korea and first used them in the war against Ukraine at the end of 2023.
Sources: IISS North Korean Missile Transfer, Axios White House North Korean Missiles, CAR Documenting North Korean Missile, CAR Recent Electronic Components, CAR 2024 Production Evidence, DIU KN-23/KN-24 Components
Narrative
The documented role is Russian long-range strike. Sources describe transferred North Korean solid-propellant ballistic missiles being fired into Ukraine, with specific physical evidence from the January 2024 Kharkiv debris and later component and production-marking investigations. The sources support combat use by Russia, not merely possession or transfer: the missile remnants were recovered after attacks in Ukraine, and U.S., Ukrainian, CAR, and UN-panel-linked sources connect those remnants to DPRK Hwasong-11-series weapons.
Public sources sometimes identify the debris as Hwasong-11-series, KN-23, KN-24, or probable KN-23/KN-24 rather than a single confirmed subvariant. That distinction matters for this catalog entry because KN-23 and KN-24 are closely related North Korean short-range ballistic missile designations and battlefield wreckage may not always allow a clean public subvariant assignment. Ukraine's Ministry of Defence later described KN-23 and KN-24 debris analysis together, while noting differences in missile geometry and production features.
The evidence also separates transfer from use. The White House and IISS accounts describe North Korean supply to Russia before the first reported launches, while CAR, DIA, DIU, and UN-panel-linked sources provide physical or forensic evidence from missiles recovered in Ukraine. Together they support a conflict-use record in which Russian forces fielded North Korean KN-23/KN-24-family ballistic missiles as strike weapons against Ukrainian targets from late 2023 onward.
Sources: DIA North Korea Missile Strikes, Ukraine MOD KN-23 and KN-24 Anatomy, DIU KN-23/KN-24 Components, CAR Documenting North Korean Missile, UN Panel Experts DPRK Missile, IISS North Korean Missile Transfer
