White House says North Korea shipping weapons to Russia

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday that North Korea is shipping a “significant number” of artillery shells to Russia. Kirby said North Korea is secretly sending them through the Middle East or Africa and that the United States is tracking whether the shipments are received. North Korea exporting arms would be a violation of United Nations resolutions that ban the country from importing or exporting weapons. Kirby said that while it is a significant number of shells, they are unlikely to change the direction of the war in Ukraine.

What else is happening in Korea? Earlier Wednesday, air raid sirens sounded across South Korea, after North Korea launched at least 23 missiles near the country’s sea border. South Korea responded by firing three missiles near the sea border. Its military said that is the closest a missile has landed to the sea border since the peninsula’s division in 1945. Hours before the launch, North Korea made a threat to use nuclear weapons against the United States and South Korea.

Dig deeper: Listen to Josh Schumacher’s report on The World and Everything in It podcast about how North Korea is trying to elicit concessions from the United States.