North Korea has successfully tested an Intercontinental ballistic missile with engines, can be obtained from the Ukrainian factory «Pivdenmash» through the black market.
This is stated in the expert analysis published by the International Institute for strategic studies Michael Elleman, and based on the assessment of U.S. intelligence.
According to the report, this allows us to solve the riddle: how Pyongyang has succeeded after several failed tests.
Analysts studied the photographs of North Korean leader Kim Jong UNmade at the time of the inspection them with new rocket engines. Experts came to the conclusion that the engines are very similar to those used by the Soviet Union in their rocket Arsenal.
Factories producing such engines in the USSR were a few, but the researchers focused on the plant «Pivdenmash», located in the Ukrainian Dnipro (former Dnepropetrovsk).
«During the cold war, the plant produced the most deadly missiles in the Soviet Arsenal, including the giant SS-18. He remained one of the main manufacturers of missiles to Russia, even after Ukraine gained independence,» the report said.
After the events on Maidan and the flight of President Viktor Yanukovych , the plant experienced difficult times. Experts believe that he might be the most likely supplier of rocket engines to North Korea.
«Perhaps these engines arrived from Ukraine. Most likely, illegally,» said Michael Ellemann in an interview with the New York Times. «The question is, how many engines are now in Pyongyang, and how involved the Ukrainians. I’m very worried».
Ellemann added that investigators from the UN came to the conclusion that Pyongyang six years ago tried to steal a missile from Ukraine, two citizens of North Korea and then detained.
In response, Oleksandr Turchynov, Secretary of the national security Council and defense of Ukraine, said that the information to foreign media «untrue».
«This information has no grounds, is provocative in content and, most likely, provoked by Russian special services to cover up their own crimes,» — said Turchinov.
He stressed that Ukraine considers the regime of North Korea, «totalitarian, dangerous and unpredictable, and maintains all sanctions against the country. Ukraine is not supplying rocket engines and any missile technology to North Korea».
