I read an article today that said North Korea got missile technology from Russia and the Ukraine. A few years ago their missiles could only hit Japan, now they can reach Boston.
So the question is, was this a top down operation with Russian government approval? This does cause the US headaches, so I could see the incentive for Russia and the pro Russia parts of the Ukraine to work to make North Korea a bigger headache for America.
Or was it rogue workers selling technology? With something that secretive and important as icbms you’d assume the government would have to be involved.
From what I’ve read, there’s no actual evidence of a technology transfer. This is someone’s inference that the development of the technology must have involved Russia or the Ukraine. Given that, any speculation about who might have been part of something that might have happened is likely to be pretty unreliable.
I read that too, and perhaps it’s true to an extent, but I’d still say China (well, several of the anti-Xi factions who are very pro-NK) helped the most. I just did a quick Google search so haven’t fully read the article, but from here:
There are tons of articles on this, but basically, there are factions in China that were previously in power who heavily supported NK and its role as a thorn in the US’s sides, and now those factions are still helping out the NK’s with their program through ‘private’ Chinese companies.
ETA: As to Russia (and perhaps the Ukraine, though it’s hard to see how Putin could be responsible for both), I wouldn’t be surprised if this has quasi-Russian government approval (which is going to be very deniable and hard to prove). I doubt much technology gets transfered out of Russia these days without Putin having some hand for finger in the decision process. Ukraine, of course, would be a different kettle of fish, and there I’d go with just corrupt officials and/or business people trying to make a buck. Still, I think the majority of the tech transfer and assistance is from China.
Generally, year by year, the countries accused of supplying the rogue state of NK are coincidental with whomever is currently unliked. Libya, Pakistan, Russia, China, Iran, Syria, Egypt, Myanmar, Yemen etc…
Dread Vlad has not historically been a fan of Nork Nukes and has supported UN Resolutions, the Sanctions and instituted bans on Russian weapons going over the border. Naturally this may be part of his masterful deceptiveness to baffle the innocents of the West. Or not.
What is certain is that some of the North Korean newest, most up-to-date, missiles are similar to Russian state-of-the-art 1960s tech.
Yeah. Given that the Soviets had a practical ICBM in 1957, you’d figure that any regime that really wanted one for itself has a fairly good idea by now of what it takes to make one.
As has been said about nuclear bombs, “It’s not the physics that’s hard, it’s the engineering.”
I’m unsure what this means. North Korea has worked with Libya, Pakistan, Iran, Syria & Myanmar on WMD. They’ve gotten financial help from Russia (under the USSR) and China. So I don’t get your point. Yes, there is trade between the nations you list and North Korea, the fact that the US doesn’t get along with most of those countries doesn’t negate it.
The missiles North Korea just used are linked to a plant in the Ukraine, a part of the Ukraine that wanted to secede and join Russia.
The question is more was this a black market deal involving the plant and possibly the mafia, or does this involve the cooperation of the Russian government.
He’s essentially saying that in the absence of any actual evidence, all we’re doing is inferring the identity of NK’s silent partner based on our own political dynamics. We’re just rounding up the usual suspects.
Nonetheless, this involves the movement of weaponry that the government considers very high security, and that government is currently under Russian tutelage.
Putin pretty much controls the oligarchs in Russia, why is it controversial to assume he also has a strong grip on high security military hardware?
Maybe it was just workers at the factory and/or the black market and had nothing to do with Russia’s government. But if an armory in the US was selling top secret weapons to a foreign nation, it isn’t controversial to ask if the US government is involved. Getting the kind of clearance and access to get to those weapons without the government knowing or letting you isn’t easy.
As, since I’ve pointed out he has joined in the Resolutions, Sanctions, and personal ban — he would have little to gain from proliferating nuclear missiles; particularly since the Russians are, and always have been, more terrified of nuclear war than others. They lost more people in WWII than other allies, and could not ( since 1945 ) sustain the proportional population losses compared to say, China or the USA; they would lose a nuclear exchange even if they won.
Furthermore, klepto-state or not, Russia no longer has a communist ideology to inform it ( and make it a fucking boring nuisance to listen to ); it is not in their interest to arm rogue states against the West just because. The Oligarchs by now are aging mainly Jewish billionaires who want to live in Cannes, with houses in London and New York, owning football clubs and counting their loot: they are the epitome of caution, with an overpowering lack of idealist philosophy: what would any of them gain by shuffling nuclear components and starting WWIII ?
Back in Yeltsin’s day, for reasons of weakness, it may have been possible for scientists ( a group of 60 of whom were halted at the airport in 1992 ) to go for a trip to any place that needed them, or for components to go AWOL from nearly abandoned Central Asian ex-Soviet Republics. Putin seems to have an adequate cork on that sort of thing.
Putin is a rascal and his state is sub-optimal, but he prefers boring negotiation to blowing things up in order to get his way. And giving the NK leadership capacities to start WWIII would count as reckless.
Some links:
*After intensive study, Elleman, a former consultant at the Pentagon, and other specialists would report that they had detected multiple design features in the new North Korean missile engine that echo those of a 1960s-era Soviet workhorse called the RD-250.
* https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/94540036/how-north-korea-got-its-missiles