Ukraine accused of helping North Korea with their missile program.

Hwasong-14 missile, tested last July. New York Times/Reuters. 

An Ukrainian factory is being accused of helping North Korea with their ballistic missile program. New York Times. A new report says that North Korea's stunning progress with their missile program is not due to their own efforts. Experts who have examined the missile launch photos claim that it is obvious that the missile engine design is based on Russian weapons. Only a few sites are capable of creating those engines and the most likely site is Yuzhmash factory in Ukraine. Since the color revolution, the site has fallen on hard times as Russia has canceled contracts with them. The factory and the Ukrainian government denied responsibility. 

The IISS report can be found here.

My Comment:

If this report is true then it is a damning for Ukraine. Though it is unclear if their government knew anything about this or not, it's still a huge problem for them. A company that is based there has helped North Korea with its missile program which is now advanced enough to strike the United States. 

The report also answers a critical question. North Korea's missile program wasn't going anywhere fast. The New York Times report said this was due in part to US sabotage, but I think it had as much to do with them being incompetent. 

Trying to build a missile program from the ground up is difficult to say the least. It's much harder to do so when you don't have access to older designs. North Korea didn't and they had to beg, borrow and steal their weapons designs. Still, that wasn't enough until apparently the Ukrainians helped them out. 

I don't think the circumstances in Ukraine justify what happened here. Yes Ukraine had a revolution. Yes they have a civil war that still lingers after 3 years of fighting. Yes, they lost Crimea. Yes, Russia has been punishing them severely for their treatment of Russian speaking minorities. None of that justifies selling technology to North Korea that can be used to strike the United States. 

I am not sure that The Ukrainian government had no knowledge of this. Ukraine is notoriously corrupt, and Petro Porshanko has proven to be just as corrupt as his predecessor. If the Yuzhmash factory had anything to do with North Korea it's inconceivable to me that people in Ukraine's government didn't know about, if for no other reason that they would want some of the dirty money.

I think there need to be consequences for Yuzhmash and the Ukrainian government. We should put major pressure on Ukraine to arrest and prosecute the people that were responsible for this. If they don't we should sanction them and pull our support from them. We have been providing them training and weapons for some time now and that should end immediately. 

Another major question is if Yuzhmash is supplying other countries with ballistic missile technology. North Korea isn't the only country interested in ballistic missiles. Iran is another huge suspect as they have an active ballistic missile program. And there are other countries that could be buying technology as well. We can not let this technology proliferate. 

As for North Korea, the genie is out of the bottle at this point. They have the technology right now to hit America with missiles. And it also seems as they they have miniaturized nuclear warheads. That's completely unacceptable and if the new sanctions don't work we might have to take military action. If that happens than we need to make sure that Ukraine takes some of the blame...