The U.S. takes seriously the data on the supply of engines from Ukraine to North Korea
WASHINGTON, 15 Aug — RIA Novosti. The U.S. takes seriously the reports on deliveries of rocket engines from Ukraine to North Korea, said state Department spokesman Heather Nauert.
“Of course, we know about these messages. This is a question that we take very seriously, if such was the case,” said Nauert at the briefing.
Previously, the newspaper the New York Times reported that the DPRK could through the black market to obtain engines for ballistic missiles, produced at the Ukrainian enterprise “Yuzhmash”. The newspaper cited classified us intelligence assessment and research expert of the analytical center IISS Michael Elleman.
In Kiev at the plant “Pivdenmash” denied having supplied arms and military technology to North Korea. General designer Bureau “southern” Alexander Degtyarev, in turn, admitted that any country could copy the Ukrainian rocket engine. As a former employee of the KB suggested that technical documents could fall into the hands of Pyongyang, which has long been interested in it.
At the end of XX century Ukraine was among the top twenty of arms exporters and, according to the Stockholm Institute for peace studies (SIPRI), in 2013 ranked eighth in the ranking, ahead of Italy and Israel. Many years after the Soviet collapse, the country sold Soviet weapons — artillery, armored vehicles and aircraft — to China, Iraq, Nigeria, Thailand, Sudan, Ethiopia.
Ukrainian state concern “Ukroboronprom” in 2016, increased its arms exports by 25% from 570 to 770 million dollars.