UN Experts: North Korea Seeking to Arm Houthis

File photo: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. KCNA/Reuters
File photo: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. KCNA/Reuters
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UN Experts: North Korea Seeking to Arm Houthis

File photo: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. KCNA/Reuters
File photo: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. KCNA/Reuters

United Nations sanctions monitors have accused North Korea of violating a UN arms embargo and attempting to sell weapons to armed groups in the Middle East, including Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs "remain intact,” the experts said in a new report to the Security Council.

The panel found that Pyongyang “is using civilian facilities, including airports, for ballistic missile assembly and testing with the goal of effectively preventing 'decapitation' strikes."

It also found evidence of a consistent trend on the part of North Korea “to disperse the assembly, storage and testing locations."

The experts said the country continues to defy UN economic sanctions, including through "a massive increase in illegal ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products and coal."

A huge increase in such transfers "render the latest United Nations sanctions ineffective by flouting the caps” on North Korea's import of petroleum products and crude oil as well as the coal ban imposed in 2017 by the Security Council in response to Pyongyang's unprecedented nuclear and ballistic missile testing," the experts said.

As for the arms embargo, the experts said North Korea attempted to supply small arms, light weapons and other military equipment via foreign intermediaries to Libya, Sudan and Houthi insurgents in Yemen.

The experts said they also investigated North Korean involvement in gold mining in Congo, construction of a military camp in Sierra Leone, the sale of fishing rights in waters surrounding the country, and other activities around the world banned under UN sanctions.

"Financial sanctions remain some of the most poorly implemented and actively evaded measures of the sanctions regime," said the panel.

The report was sent to Council members as US President Donald Trump is preparing for a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.



Russian Attack Kills Two in City of Poltava, Ukrainian Officials Say

A view shows the site of a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Poltava, Ukraine July 3, 2025. Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Poltava region/Handout via REUTERS
A view shows the site of a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Poltava, Ukraine July 3, 2025. Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Poltava region/Handout via REUTERS
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Russian Attack Kills Two in City of Poltava, Ukrainian Officials Say

A view shows the site of a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Poltava, Ukraine July 3, 2025. Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Poltava region/Handout via REUTERS
A view shows the site of a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Poltava, Ukraine July 3, 2025. Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Poltava region/Handout via REUTERS

A Russian attack on the city of Poltava in central Ukraine killed two people and damaged a military recruitment center, the Ukrainian military and regional officials said on Thursday.

Regional governor Volodymyr Kohut said 11 people were also wounded, while the military reported fires in the military recruitment building and in a nearby residential building, reported Reuters.

Photos from the scene posted by emergency services showed firefighters battling blazes as well as damaged buildings and cars.

Russia has stepped up drone and missile attacks on Ukraine in the last month, and has launched some of the biggest attacks since its full-scale invasion that began in February 2022.

The aerial assault followed a drone attack on Monday near a military recruitment center in the central city of Kryvyi Rih.

Civilians were wounded in Kryvyi Rih, the military said, adding that military personnel and civilian employees of the recruitment center had sheltered during the air alert.

Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, have underlined the urgency of assistance on air defense from allies to defend against such assaults.