Klimkin denies Ukraine's involvement in DPRK missile program

He stated this in comments to The New York Times after it published an article "Tracing Success of North Korea to Ukraine Plant."

"I was alarmed by suggestions in your article that Ukraine may have supplied rocket technology to North Korea.," Klimkin said.

According to him, 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," Klimkin said.

He also added that the production lines for building these types of rockets in Ukraine were decommissioned in 1992.

"The expertise cannot be carried in the heads of rogue scientists. The instructions are included in complex manuals locked in top-security facilities guarded by our security forces. Not only would it be virtually impossible for criminals to access these manuals, but also any effort could not go unnoticed by our government," Klimkin said.

The minister believes that North Korea could not succeed in its missile programs without outside assistance and called for an international investigation to find those responsible.

"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," he said.

Earlier, The New York Times, citing Michael Elleman, a missile expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and referring to classified assessments by American intelligence agencies, wrote that North Korea's success in testing an intercontinental ballistic missile that appears able to reach the United States was made possible by black-market purchases of powerful rocket engines probably from a Ukrainian factory with historical ties to Russia's missile program.

In this regard, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov said that this information did not have any grounds, was provocative and, most likely, "provoked by the Russian special services to cover up their own crimes."

Ukraine's state-run machine building plant Yuzhmash also said that it did not supply to Russia any missiles, their parts and assembly units, including rocket engines, and it does not have any connection with North Korea's missile programs.

op