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Report: Russia Linked to North Korean Missile Advances

Investigators trace supply chain to black-market Ukrainian factory just across border.

North Korea’s rapid missile-program improvements can likely be traced back to a black-market factory that used to produce the Soviet Union’s most deadly weaponry, according to a new report and classified assessments by U.S. intel agencies. It is not believed that North Korea could have made such big leaps forward in their nuclear-weapons program without outside help. The former Soviet factory is just over the Russian border in Ukraine. “It’s likely that these engines came from Ukraine—probably illicitly,” Michael Elleman of the International Institute for Strategic Studies told The New York Times. “The big question is how many they have and whether the Ukrainians are helping them now. I’m very worried.”