As the crisis over Guam and North Korea ratchets down a few notches in the wake of the Kim Jong Un regime “blinking” over its threats, it’s worth noting that a recent report in The New York Times has blamed the country of Ukraine for supplying the engines for intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) fielded by North Korea in recent tests.
Specifically, the paper points the finger at a state-owned factory under the moniker Yuzhmash, which supposedly once enjoyed large orders for missile production from Russia prior to the 2014 coup that ousted Ukraine’s Russia-friendly former President Viktor Yanukovych.
Important in the article are several points that are made, namely:
1. Prior to 2015, many of North Korea’s missile tests were awkward failures, particularly any that aimed for long distances. In contrast, Russia’s powerful SS-18 missiles, powered by Yuzhmash engines, were noted for being able to carry as many as 10 thermonuclear warheads from one continent to another.
2. Analysts who studied 2017 photographs of new North Korean missiles undergoing inspections by leader Kim Jong Un were able to tell that the engines were of a different type than had been seen previously. This type was either imported or copied from RD-250 designs used in Russian missiles.
3. The engines in question are likely produced at one particular factory in Dnipro, Ukraine, close to where that country continues to fight a low-level war against its now-adversary Russia. The Dnipro factory supplied Russian missile engines even after Ukraine had declared independence from Russia.
4. After 2014, Russia canceled upgrades to its nuclear missiles. This left the Dnipro factory underutilized and many of its workers unemployed. It was just this unemployment and underutilization that a July 2014 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace report warned about.
“It’s likely that the [North Korean missile] engines came from Ukraine — probably illicitly,” said Michael Elleman, an expert on missile technology at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “The big question is how many they have and whether the Ukrainians are helping them now. I’m very worried.”
Elleman went on to say that UN investigators accused North Korea of trying to steal missile technology from the factory complex six years ago. Two North Korean spies were caught, and the subsequent UN report said they were focused on information about liquid-propellant engines and fuel supply systems.
In the interim, it’s suspected that North Korea was able to buy the sought-after technology on the black market. The reason why this is suspected is that the rogue country only tested its new missile engine design 10 months ago, in September of last year. For the North Korean regime to go from basic testing to incorporating the design into working missiles means that it likely purchased expertise, designs and hardware on the black market.
For its part, Yuzhmash’s website says the firm does not, will not and has not “transferred potentially dangerous technologies outside Ukraine [presumably excluding Russia].” But American investigators don’t buy it. Michael Elleman believes a Russian missile enterprise called Energomash may have had a role in the transfer.
The new Ukrainian nationalist government of Petro Poroshenko has denied any knowledge about Ukrainian technology or hardware movements to North Korea. After The New York Times published its article, Oleksandr Turchynov, a Ukrainian national security official, stated, “This information isn’t based on any grounds, is provocative by its content and is most likely provoked by Russian secret services to cover their own crimes.” He said the government of Ukraine views North Korea as “totalitarian, dangerous and unpredictable and supports all sanctions against this country.”
Prior to the Yuzhmash engines allegedly being utilized by the North Koreans, an American intelligence program to sabotage the North Koreans via cyber intrusions and malware had experienced a fair amount of success. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had ordered tests of the previous North Korean missile, the Musudan, to cease. But the new missiles the regime rolled out immediately afterward were much more successful.
Leon Panetta, the former director of the CIA, admitted, “The rapid nature of how they’ve been able to [acquire new] capabilities is something, frankly, that has surprised both the United States and the world.” Thus, Panetta and others have concluded the new North Korean missile technology was likely purchased rather than invented in-house.
It should be borne in mind that the current government of Ukraine was installed with the substantial help of ex-U.S. President Barack Obama. Another person who had his hands in putting in the new regime was billionaire financier George Soros. In 2015, Ukrainian President Poroshenko awarded Soros Ukraine’s Order of Freedom.
Would Soros know anything about the missile engine transfers? Soros has gone on record as advocating for U.S. arms sales to the one-time Soviet state, and leaked documents have established links between him and Victoria Nuland, the controversial Assistant Secretary of State for Eurasian Affairs under Obama (and a previous Bill Clinton administration appointee).
A telephone conversation between Nuland and then-U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt was leaked in 2014 wherein Nuland was recorded discussing who should be installed as the new Ukrainian prime minister, resulting in a flurry of criticism of Nuland and the U.S. government among European Union member states.
It’s also worth recalling that recently, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) was accused of trying to work with parties in Ukraine to get illicit information about President Trump’s campaign connections to Russia prior to the 2016 election. Specifically, Republican Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Chuck Grassley has inquired whether the Department of Justice (DOJ) is investigating Alexandra Chalupa, a DNC consultant who happens to be Ukrainian-American and who had meetings at the Ukrainian Embassy to access information about the Trump campaign.
Chalupa also has ties to both Bill and Hillary Clinton. On July 25, President Trump tweeted, “Ukrainian efforts to sabotage Trump campaign — ‘quietly working to boost Clinton.’ So where is the investigation A.G.?”
Where all of this leads isn’t clear yet. But what is clear is that the Dnipro factory may still be hurting for orders of new missile engines. So far, it’s been trying to make up the production slack with trolley buses and tractors — not exactly the stuff of its glory days. And that, unfortunately, should be a concern for all Americans.
