Ukraine’s Poroshenko Orders Probe Into North Korea Missile Claims
By RFE RL
(RFE/RL) — Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko says he has ordered an “urgent, thorough, and full investigation” into a media report alleging that North Korea may have purchased rocket engines from a Ukrainian factory.
Poroshenko wrote on his Facebook page on August 16 that the probe will be led by the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.
The investigation will include the participation of the interagency commission for military-technical cooperation policy and export control, as well as state-run missile factory Yuzhmash, Poroshenko wrote, with a report on the results due within three days.
The announcement comes two days after a report in The New York Times, citing an analysis by a missile expert and classified assessments by U.S. intelligence agencies, said 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.”
Ukrainian officials have already denied the story.
