A North Korean ballistic missile fired last month by the Russian military in Ukraine contained hundreds of components that trace back to companies in the US and Europe, according to a new report.
The findings mark the first public identification of North Korea’s reliance on foreign technology for its missile program and underscore the persistent problem facing the Biden administration as it tries to keep cheap, Western-made microelectronics intended for civilian use from winding up in weapons used by North Korea, Iran and Russia.
The UK-based investigative organization Conflict Armament Research, or CAR, directly examined 290 components from remnants of a North Korean ballistic missile recovered in January from Kharkiv, Ukraine, and found that 75% of the components were designed and sold by companies incorporated in the United States, according to the report shared first with CNN.
It’s not about better, it’s about quantity. Russia fires a shitload of artillery and needs ammo. NK sits on a lot of stockpiles. Plus NK has the old tooling for a lot of the ancient Soviet equipment.
There’s also the fact that China, through NK, can funnel help to Russia. Whether that’s “true” or not. Additionally there isn’t much we can do to NK at this point so they have more to gain by dealing with Russia.
“true”?
Agreed those scare quotes confuse things. I read it as emphasis