22 August 2017, Tuesday, 15:02 84

Klimkin In Letter To New York Times: Global Community Must Conduct Inquiry To Establish Those Responsible For Supplies Of Rocket Technologies To North Korea

Редактор: Daria Zubkova

Foreign Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin calls on the global community to conduct an international inquiry to find out who helped North Korea develop its rocket technologies.

He gave the position in his letter to the editor-in-chief of The New York Times, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"I was alarmed by suggestions in your article that Ukraine may have supplied rocket technology to North Korea. The article suggests that North Korea has been using an engine called the RD-250, then confirmed that the RD-250 was developed in Russia, and then made the leap that the technology leakage came from Ukraine. But no evidence has been provided to support the claims. As Ukraine's foreign minister and a trained aerophysicist, I want to say that my country could not have been involved in aiding North Korea's missile program," reads the letter.

Minister Klimkin states the production lines for building these types of rockets in Ukraine were decommissioned in 1992.

"But I am doubtful that North Korea could achieve what it has done without outside help. The global community must now come together to conduct an international inquiry to find out who was responsible," reads the letter.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, citing experts, The New York Times recently reported that the state enterprise Yuzhny Machine-Building Plant named after A.M. Makarov Production Association (YUZHMASH, Dnipro) was possibly involved in development of missile technologies by North Korea. YUZHMASH has denied this claim.

The enterprise denies supplies of RD250 engines to North Korea and confirms cooperation with South Korea.

The State Space Agency believes that the claim by Michael Elleman of the International Institute for Strategic Studies of possible involvement of YUZHMASH in the development of missile technology in North Korea is groundless.

The Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council's Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov has said that Ukraine did not supply weapons or military technology to North Korea and Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has said that he considered these claims as a provocation against Ukraine.

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko orders a group to check information about possible supplies of rocket engines by YUZHMASH to North Korea.

Soon after the publication of an article entitled "Tracing Success of North Korea to Ukraine Plant" Michael Elleman posted comments on Twitter to say YUZHMASH was one of several possible sources and there were other possible sources in Russia.