Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak has described reports on Ukraine’s possible involvement in the North Korean missile program as another attempt by ill-wishers to link Kyiv to an international scandal.
“This is another fake. Russia or the people who do not want to see Ukraine as a strong and independent state are trying to link us to every scandal in the world. This is another attempt to link us to something that never happened and could not have happened at all,” Poltorak told reporters in Kyiv on August 16.
The New York Times reported on August 14 citing conclusions by a missile expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies that the Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile launched by the DPRK in July may have been powered by an engine designed on the basis of the RD-250, which was developed for Soviet ICBMs in the 1960s.
The report names the state-owned Pivdenmash machine-building plant, which The New York Times describes as “one of Russia’s primary producers of missiles even after Ukraine gained independence,” as the most likely supplier of technology for building the North Korean missile’s engine.
Pivdenmash dismissed the allegations aired by The New York Times and described them as an attempt to discredit Pivdenmash and Ukraine.
