North Korea’s sea-based missile technology came from Russia, documents show

Experts say some Soviet designs of sophisticated missiles have reappeared in North Korea.

Newly uncovered documents from Russia have pointed towards designs for missiles that can be launched via submarine from the former Soviet Union ended up in North Korea.

A submarine missile is paraded across the Kim Il Sung Square during a military parade in Pyongyang on April 15, 2017. (AP)

Towards the end of the Cold War, the Soviets had built and perfected many missiles that could reach the American mainland. After the Soviet Union collapsed, these missile designs were quickly snapped up by the Americans. Some missiles offered for sale could be launched from a large boat, a submerged barge, or even a capsule dropped into the ocean,

Now, experts say, some Soviet designs for sophisticated missiles have reappeared in North Korea, The Washington Post reported.

“The question that has long been raised is: Did North Korea get this technology from a (Russian) fire sale?” David Wright, a missiles expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists, was quoted as saying. “Did they get plans years ago and are just now at the point where they can build these things?”

The Post reported that some of the evidence is circumstantial — in 1993, around 60 Russian nuclear scientists were arrested as they attempted to travel to Pyongyang to work as consultants, and they acknowledged to investigators that they had been recruited as a group to assist North Korea in building rockets. Intelligence agencies later concluded that some may have succeeded in their plan.

It is unknown why it has taken the country so long to reproduce these missiles, but experts say North Korea has “long lacked the sophisticated materials, engineering expertise and computer-driven machine tools for the kinds of advanced missiles it has recently tested”, the report said.