The Russian Federation could have supplied the North Korea with parts and components for missiles that allegedly acquired for its needs until 2014 from Ukrainian enterprises, Petro Poroshenko Bloc has said.
“Russia had been receiving parts and components for missiles from Ukrainian enterprises until 2014. At that time, the Russian Federation said that it had been receiving it for its own needs. According to international law, it is the buyer who is responsible for the final use of military and dual-use products,” an MP from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction Iryna Friz said in a comment to the Interfax-Ukraine agency on August 14.
The politician said that today the Ukrainian authorities do not know where and for what purpose Russia was re-exporting missile technologies, which they had received until 2014, allegedly for the needs of their armed forces.
“Violation of the conditions of export control by the Russian Federation and the transfer of technologies to the DPRK testifies to the need to introduce a full embargo on the import and export of Russian weapons,” Friz said.
She also considers it necessary to conduct an international investigation of the supply of technologies and components by the Russian Federation to countries that are under international sanctions.
“I do not exclude that Iran’s nuclear and missile program is also developing with the help of Russia. It is not in vain that on August 13 this year the Iranian parliament increased its missile program expenditures by $0.5 billion,” the MP said.
According to her, there is information that the North Korean nuclear program, as well as the program for the construction of ballistic missiles of this country, was supported by Russian specialists who participated in the work in North Korea at least since the mid-2000s.
“Russian assistance to Pyongyang in the development of weapons is Russia’s next attempt to find ways to negotiate with Washington and create a security problem for it in the Pacific,” she said, adding that since the Soviet era, the Kremlin viewed North Korea as a counterweight to the United States.
“Accordingly, the appearance of the “Ukrainian trace” in the DPRK missile program lies solely in Russia’s attempt to change the U.S. position, including Ukraine, and to get rid of sanctions,” the politician said.
At the same time, she said that Ukraine had never carried out military and technical cooperation with the DPRK.
On August 14, The New York Times claimed in its article “North Korea’s Missile Success Is Linked to Ukrainian Plant, Investigators Say” that powerful rocket engines for North Korean missiles had been purchased on the black market, most likely from a Ukrainian plant “with historical ties to Russia’s missile program.”
The NSDC Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov said that the Ukrainian defense and aerospace complexes hadn’t supplied weapons and military technology to North Korea, and false information disseminated by some foreign media about the alleged transfer of missile technology by Yuzhmash to the DPRK is most likely triggered by Russian special services.
