A US intelligence official knocked down claims that North Korea may have used illicit trade networks to purchase powerful rocket engines once produced by a Ukrainian factory that were instrumental to the Soviet missile program.
“We have intelligence to suggest that North Korea is not reliant on imports of engines — instead, we judge they have the ability to produce the engines themselves,” the official told CNN on August 15 in response to new analysis from the International Institute for Strategic Studies that was first reported by The New York Times on August 14.
