Ukraine released North Korean Spies who stole ICBM tech

ICYMI Ukraine 🇺🇦 just released the North Korean spies 🇰🇵🕵️‍♂️who stole ICBM tech 🚀 from their former commie comradeshttps://t.co/t6sEbt7GUL pic.twitter.com/QY3ePa4LVA

— 🎼AdagioForStrings🎻 (@adagioforstring) September 7, 2018

from Sept 7, 2018 NHK report

Reporter: [released North Korean spy] told NHK he planned to return to North Korea as soon as possible.

Reporter: The North's missile technology has undergone rapid development in recent years. There are allegations it's acquiring its know how from abroad.

Reporter: Last year, a US expert published a report claiming Pyongyang acquired technology made at a Ukrainian factory on the black market.  Ukraine's government has denied supplying any materials [what about blueprints?]

Reporter: The release of the spies comes amid a stalemate in denuclearization talks between the United States and North Korea.  US media report suggests one of the hold ups is believed to be over Washington's demand for Pyongyang to allow its nuclear and missile engineers to leave the country.


Ukraine is denying they are the source of NK missile tech. From Walsh, Nick Paton. “The North Korean Spies Caught Stealing Plans.” CNN, Cable News Network, 1 Sept. 2017, edition.cnn.com/2017/08/24/europe/ukraine-north-korea-spies/index.html.

The images are a little grainy, but in the half-light of a dusty Ukrainian garage, you can sense the unbridled enthusiasm of the two North Korean spies who are photographing what they think are top-secret missile designs.
In a rare window into the opaque, deadly and secretive world of missile technology espionage, Ukrainian security services have given CNN surveillance footage and details of an elaborate sting operation they carried out to snare two North Korean spies in 2011.
The revelations are aimed at dispelling claims that a recent leap forward in Pyongyang's intercontinental missile technology may have been achieved by using designs stolen or originating from Ukraine.

However, maybe the Ukrainians protest too much, from Shuster, Simon. “Did Ukrainian Scientists Arm North Korea's Nuclear Power?” Time, Time, 1 Feb. 2018, time.com/5128398/the-missile-factory/.

Viktor Moisa, a retired rocket scientist, welcomed the North Koreans to his institute in eastern Ukraine just as he would with any other guests. He took them upstairs to the showroom of Soviet satellites and rocket engines, the pride of the institute’s collection. Then they went out to the yard, where an array of parts for ballistic missiles were on display. This was in the early 2000s, well before North Korea would test its first nuclear bomb in 2006. So the visitors’ interest in missile technology did not arouse Moisa’s suspicion. “They came as tourists,” he told TIME on a breezy afternoon last fall. “At least that’s how they presented themselves.”
We were standing in the same yard he had shown to the North Koreans, a paved lot in the city of Dnipro where old missile components are still on show, many of them made at a nearby rocket factory known as Yuzhmash. Guidance systems, fuel pumps and the massive cones designed to hold nuclear warheads at the tip of a rocket all stood in the autumn sun like leftovers from a military rummage sale. Moisa, a cheerful 79-year-old with a puff of silver hair, says he understands in retrospect that his guests from North Korea were probably spies. “It’s just a guess,” he told me with a smile. “But they were probably dreaming of being a real missile power.”
That dream has since been achieved. Over the past eight months, North Korea has test-launched three rockets capable of striking the U.S. mainland. According to missile experts in the U.S. and Europe, the key components of these rockets are based on Soviet designs, much like those displayed in Moisa’s museum. The latest North Korean breakthrough, the Hwasong-15 missile, was tested in November; experts believe it could be powerful enough to lob a nuclear warhead all the way to New York City.

From Lipton, Charles. “Suddenly, North Korean rockets are much better.” Zip Dialog, Zip Dialog, 14 August 2017, https://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7254577696438195900#editor/target=post;postID=7552945901870727872;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=0;src=link

And from  Bodner, Matthew. “Ukraine changes tactics on North Korea engine claims.” Space News, Space News, 18 August 2017. , https://spacenews.com/ukraine-changes-tactics-on-north-korea-engine-claims/