By Maxim Hvatkov

 

North Korea’s (DPRK) nuclear missile program remains a major headache for the United States, and much of the wider world.

Its development would not have been possible, however, without Pyongyang’s access to Soviet technology, specifically  nuclear-capable hardware that remained in Ukraine after the collapse of the USSR. This article delves into the unlikely story of the part Ukraine played in making North Korea a major threat to America and its Asian allies. 

The US, South Korea and Japan share a lot of common goals, one of them being the complete de-nuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. US President Joe Biden has once again made this point clear at the 2022 NATO summit in Madrid. Meanwhile, Washington’s allies in Asia have recently found a new reason for concern – on June 14, South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin announced that North Korea had completed preparations for a new nuclear test.

Prior to that, in March 2022, Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un effectively ended his country's self-imposed 2018 moratorium on testing intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of reaching US soil. Now, both Seoul and Washington are anxiously awaiting news about new test launches.

How does a country which is effectively cut off from the rest of the world even achieve this level of technology? You might be surprised, but we must go to Ukraine for answers.

From the communist land all the way to the land of Juche

Today, we can say with near absolute certainty that, when designing and constructing its intercontinental ballistic missile, the DPRK used RD-250 rocket engines produced at the Ukrainian Yuzhmash machine-building plant in the city of Dnepropetrovsk.

Like most of the still-functioning industrial enterprises in Ukraine, Yuzhmash is part of the Soviet legacy. The plant was built in 1944 with World War II in full swing; later, during the Cold War, its engineers designed and produced the USSR’s most advanced missiles to compete with the US in the arms race.

In the 21st century, Washington once again feels threatened by certain Yuzhmash products – despite the fact that Ukraine, following its 2014 coup, became a satellite of the US, and the plant has since signed contracts with the Americans (to produce rocket stages, engines for these stages, as well as various hardware used in their launch vehicles).

In August 2017, The New York Times, citing Michael Elleman, a missile expert with the lobby group Institute of International Strategic Studies (IISS), reported that the DPRK had most likely used the RD-250 engines to design its own intercontinental ballistic missile.

“It’s likely that these engines came from Ukraine – probably illicitly... The big question is how many they have and whether the Ukrainians are helping them now. I’m very worried,” Elleman said. The experts at the IISS, however, believed that the official authorities in Kiev were not involved in the smuggling operation.

The design bureaus of Yuzhmash, as well as Yuzhnoye Design Office, a similar enterprise in Dnepropetrovsk, were emphatic in their denial of any collaboration with Pyongyang and its nuclear missile program. Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Aleksandr Turchynov even suggested that the accusations were part of an ‘anti-Ukrainian campaign’ carried out by Russian intelligence. He claimed it was Moscow’s way of concealing its own assistance to North Korea.

However, in a 2018 report by the 1718 Sanctions Committee (DPRK), the Ukrainian authorities admitted that, in all likelihood, the engine for North Korea’s ballistic missiles was created using components of the RD-250 engine produced by Yuzhmash. They added that, in their opinion, the deliveries must have been made through Russian territory. Of course, they would say this.

Vasily Kashin, Director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE), told RT that this controversy about North Korea receiving liquid-fuel engines from Yuzhmash remains the only incident officially on record.

 

“It wasn’t Ukraine sending their engines to North Korea – it was the work of North Korean scientific and technical intelligence in Ukraine that made it all happen. Apparently, the liquid-fuel rocket engines had been acquired there illegally even prior to 2014,” the expert concluded.

Be my guest, or transfer of military technology

At the same time, relations between Kiev and Pyongyang have never been friendly and heartfelt enough to suggest Ukraine’s willingness to provide North Korea with powerful nuclear weapons. However, there is documentary evidence of Ukraine’s corruption-based cooperation with other countries in the nuclear missile field at the turn of the 21st century, which may invite precisely this kind of thinking.

In 1994, Kiev finally discarded the last of its remaining nuclear arsenal, of around 1,000 missiles it had retained after the collapse of the USSR. The plan was to pass half of them on to Russia and to destroy the rest – as part of the US-funded disarmament program.

But in 2005, ex-president of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko confirmed that the previous administration had sold X-55 cruise missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead to Iran and China “through several figureheads,” as he put it. The range of these missiles is 2.5 thousand kilometers, so this scam practically meant an increased threat of nuclear attack for Israel and Japan.

However, it seems that North Korea had other ways of getting what it wanted.

Starting from the 1990s, representatives of North Korea were caught red-handed trying to get hold of Soviet nuclear missile technology on many occasions. Kashin believes Pyongyang has been conducting scientific and technical intelligence in Ukraine for quite a while now.

“According to declassified KGB documents, North Korean scientific and technical intelligence efforts in Ukraine date back to Soviet times. There was a criminal case, for example, involving their agent, a worker of the Arsenal Factory in Kiev, who was caught stealing parts of anti-tank missiles. North Koreans had ample opportunity to get hold of Soviet military technology in the 1990s and early 2000s in Dnepropetrovsk where they were snooping around all the time. And the Ukrainian government was not involved in any of this. There is nothing to confirm that they were selling their technology deliberately, of course. They just took advantage of the gaps in Ukraine’s flawed counter-intelligence system,” Kashin said.

Mikhail Khodarenok, a military analyst and retired colonel, reminded RT about the chaos and anarchy that reigned in post-Soviet Russia and Ukraine, affecting many areas of life in the 1990s.

“Back then, Ukraine saw much of its critically important technology leak out of the country. We can trace Ukrainian influence in both China’s and Iran’s strategic cruise missile arsenals. And it’s not surprising – everyone did their best to survive in those turbulent times. And many things may indeed have been done without the involvement of [the] Ukrainian leadership.”

“But I don’t believe North Koreans were able to steal much. I am inclined to think that, in many cases, it was all based on deals, on mutual agreement. It’s just that the government was not part of it,” Khodarenok concluded.

 

And 20 years after the Soviet Union collapse, espionage attempts by North Korea continued.

On 12 December 2012, the DPRK became the 10th nation to join the global space club by placing its Kwangmyongsong-3 (or KMS-3) satellite in Earth orbit. It was the same year when a high-profile spy case involving North Korean nationals was investigated in Ukraine.

It resulted in two citizens of North Korea (employees of a trade mission in Belarus) being sentenced to eight years in prison. They were caught trying to buy technical documentation and scientific works containing important R&D results from the staff of the Yuzhnoye Design Office in Ukraine. And they offered to pay a modest fee of $1,000 for every research paper on liquid-fuel engine systems. An unnamed source later informed the Strana.ua web portal that the Koreans had taken a particular interest in the design of the legendary R-36M (or Satan) intercontinental ballistic missile engine. It’s the most powerful missile of its kind.

Hunger and bombs

Another issue that has likely played into the hands of North Korean technology hunters is the ‘brain drain’ phenomenon, with dozens of Soviet engineers fleeing abroad after the Belovezh Accords were signed in 1991, disbanding the USSR.

The post-Soviet de-industrialization of Ukraine took stable income and career prospects away from dozens of professionals working at the Ukrainian aerospace manufacturer Yuzhmash. So these people were forced to look for other ways to make a living.

Choices were limited. They could either try their luck in the wild post-Soviet labor market (attempting to start a business or becoming a salesperson) or agree to a tempting –albeit questionable in terms of patriotism and legality– offer to help other countries with their nuclear missile programs. 

Many of them found themselves in difficult circumstances –personally and professionally– after the fall of the Soviet Union. It's even believed that some of them went to North Korea, Iran and Pakistan.

Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Carlos Pascual later admitted that the importance of this phenomenon, when top-level specialists lost their jobs, was overlooked. It wasn’t just a matter of their personal turmoil – this was an important factor for the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. 

The US and EU, however, took some initiatives in the mid-1990s. They funded the Science and Technology Center in Ukraine, an intergovernmental organization that was supposed to make sure that expertise and experience in the area of weapons of mass destruction didn’t leak. 

Executive Director Curtis Bjelajac admitted that there was a point where the center basically gave out money to certain specialists. In the end, millions of dollars were spent on former Soviet engineers and scientists specializing in missile and nuclear technology. The general consensus is that this helped stop the flow of professionals into countries that are toying with dangerous technology. But were there any ‘leaks’?

According to Mikhail Khodarenok, there is an understanding within the community of experts that it was the work of Yuzhmash specialists that helped North Korea develop its missiles.

 

“You can’t really judge Yuzhmash engineers – everyone tried to survive back then, and those countries paid good money. I think that many went there for work. North Korea would not have made such advances without the expertise in the critical technology. The Soviet Union also had to borrow – it used Wernher von Braun's research after the war,”Khodarenok said. (Von Braun was a German aerospace engineer and Nazi Party member who later worked in the US — RT).

Creative nuclear weapons

Compared to Western Europe and the US, South Korea has been very reserved in its help to Kiev during this year's crisis, providing mostly moral support and supplying non-lethal military aid. Some are surprised by this reaction. Why doesn’t Seoul do more? Maybe South Korea is concerned with the possibility that the equipment received by Ukraine might someday magically reappear north of the 38th parallel?

Khodarenok thinks that this is unlikely but he finds the theory interesting. He says that the real reason South Korea is not going all in is that “every Russian family owns several things manufactured in South Korea, and the country doesn’t want to lose that market”. However, Seoul may change its stance under pressure from Washington, the expert warns.

Kashin sees the connection between South Korea’s reserved reaction and the North’s nuclear problem, but he finds it elsewhere.

“South Korea knows that if it helps Ukraine, Russia will stop complying with the sanctions against North Korea. Seoul understands that it shouldn’t burn all bridges with Russia, whose military operation in Ukraine was supported by North Korea (one of very few countries). And since Russia’s relations with all developed [sic] countries went south, Moscow might decide to get creative with its North Korea partnership. And nobody wants that – especially not South Korea. Israel, by the way, is guided by the same considerations – it has refused to supply Ukraine with any lethal equipment, because Russia might respond by providing Iran with some unpleasant weapons,” he commented. 

\\

 

By Maxim Hvatkov, a Russian journalist focusing on international security, China's politics and soft-power tools.

 

 

 

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Former DEA Agent: Biden’s ‘Lack of Law and Order’ to Blame for 53 Deaths in Texas Lorry Incident

 

A total of 53 migrants hoping to enter the US were found dead in San Antonio, Texas, earlier this week after the air conditioning unit of the tractor-trailer stopped working, a federal criminal complaint filed on Wednesday states. The driver and suspected conspirator of the human smuggling incident are facing charges that carry the death penalty.

Members of the Border Network for Human Rights and other immigration advocates held a candlelight vigil in Texas on Thursday in honor of the hundreds of individuals whose lives were lost while attempting to enter the US.

Memorials in honor of the 53 lives lost earlier this week were placed near the border wall as speakers at the event decried the horrific incident and continued border policies of US President Joe Biden’s administration.

 

“Migrants, refugees and entire families are using more distant and dangerous routes to come to the United States due to border policies that pretend to deter migration,” said Border Network for Human Rights member Irma Cruz, as reported by Border Report. “We demand immediate action to prevent more unnecessary deaths and we demand border policy solutions that save lives, not lead people to their deaths.”

 

Derek Maltz, a national security and public safety executive and former Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent, tells Sputnik that border policies implemented by the Biden administration have exacerbated the US border situation and a “lack of law and order” is overwhelming US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents.

 

“The poor migrants that were cooked to death in a tractor-trailer is a result of failed immigration and border security policies that have been implemented under this current administration,” Maltz said, referring to the Texas lorry incident.

 

“And we have 155-160 countries taking advantage of the weak policies that have been implemented by the current administration in America,” Maltz said. “They want to come to America. Many of these people are living in horrible conditions in their own countries, and they want to come to America because it's a great country and we want them to come to America.”

 

In acknowledging the rise in the number of legitimate asylum seekers, Maltz emphasized that US leadership is sending “mixed messages” to migrants.

He noted that Tom Homan, retired acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), recently told Fox News that, in the eyes of the Biden administration, “[b]eing here illegally is no longer illegal.”

 

“Illegal immigration is no longer a priority of this administration,” said the retired acting director. “I think they are going to continue that.”

 

 

Last year, US Vice President Kamala Harris, the nation’s point-person for immigration issues at the nation's southern border, took her first international trip and plainly urged would-be Guatemalan migrants to not make the “dangerous trek” to the US.

 

“Do not come,” Harris said. “The United States will continue to enforce our laws and secure our borders."

 

Harris’ June 2021 speech included an announcement of 500,000 COVID-19 vaccines to Guatemala, as well as $26 million in aid to fight the pandemic.

Many have argued that if US officials were truly concerned for the safety of asylum-seeking migrants, the administration would have promptly lifted Title 42, the Trump-era policy that employed COVID-19 and public health as the basis for the expulsion of asylum seekers.

While Texas Governor Greg Abbott and other Republicans have attributed the rise in asylum seekers at the border to Biden’s “open border policies,” Title 42 has remained in place since March 2020. Under the order, US border agents have been able to swiftly expel most asylum seekers.

 

Many migrants are sent back into Mexico without detention or any criminal penalties, which notably has contributed to a rise in repeated encounters with US border agents. CBP data shows 25% of encounters at the border in May were with migrants who attempted to cross into the US within the past year.

Furthermore, the rise in activity at the border has been accompanied by an increase in the trafficking of fentanyl.

 

“We have more deaths in America now than ever in the history of the country because of poisonous fentanyl that's coming in from Mexico on a daily basis,” Maltz said, noting that the DEA recovered enough fentanyl in 2021 to kill every American.

 

This estimate was based on the determination that it would take approximately two milligrams of fentanyl to kill a human.

 

“We're losing about 300 Americans a day to drugs, and the majority of the deaths are from the poisonous fentanyl that are coming from labs in Mexico,” he added.

 

READ MORE:

https://sputniknews.com/20220702/former-dea-agent-bidens-lack-of-law-and-order-to-blame-for-53-deaths-in-texas-lorry-incident-1096879851.html

 

 

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US-based Raytheon Technologies, one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world by revenue and market capitalization, posted a near 5% year-on-year surge in third-quarter revenue on Tuesday.

Company sales grew to $16.95 billion during the period – based largely on its missile and defense contracts – thanks in part to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, as well as rising air travel demand, which buoyed parts and services sales.

The Raytheon Missile and Defense unit reported third quarter adjusted sales of $3.678 billion. They were down 6% versus the prior year due to supply chain constraints and declines on some military programs, but the decrease was partially offset by higher volume on strategic missile defense orders.

Among the most notable defense bookings during the quarter were a $1 billion contract to develop the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM) for the US Air Force and a $972 million contract for the Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) for the US Air Force, the US Navy, and international customers.

Raytheon also recently received a $182 million contract from the US Army for supplying its National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAM) to Ukraine. It is part of the $2.98 billion in US defense aid promised to Kiev in order to stave off the advance of Russian troops. According to US defense officials, eight NASAMs have already been dispatched to Ukraine. This month, reports have emerged that Washington plans to send two more NASAMs to Kiev in the near future.

READ MORE: Pentagon details air-defense deliveries to Ukraine

The US has also been supplying the Ukrainian army with Raytheon and Lockheed Martin-developed Javelin anti-tank missiles. Last month, the Pentagon announced a new $311 million contract for replenishing the stocks of Javelins that were reportedly depleted by deliveries to Kiev. Ukraine has been demanding more US missiles for its air defense following Russian missile attacks on several Ukrainian cities, including Kiev.

 

 

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https://www.rt.com/business/565320-raytheon-profits-ukraine-weapons-demand/

 

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The conflict in Ukraine gives Western arms producers a chance to see which products fare best in a real fight against Russia, the country’s defense minister has said.

“We have a combat testing field in Ukraine during this war,” Aleksey Reznikov explained. “We have eight different 155mm artillery systems in the field … so it’s like a competition between systems” to see which one proves best.

The comments came in an interview with Politico published on Tuesday. The testing ground idea was previously expressed by Reznikov’s deputy, Vladimir Gavrilov, who claimed that some American defense contractors were fielding their prototypes in Ukraine.

Kiev expects military aid from NATO members to continue flowing into the country for years and wants to benefit more from it, Reznikov said. For example, Ukraine could start joint ventures with Poland, the UK, or Germany to produce weapons.

“We have to develop a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) industry not only for aerial drones but also on land and in the sea because it’s the future” of warfare, he noted.

 

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https://www.rt.com/russia/565350-ukraine-test-range-minister/

 

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SEE ALSO: https://yourdemocracy.net/drupal/node/43171

 

 

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