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.
How can a country as large as Russia be dependent on a tiny and thoroughly sanctioned country as North Korea? How can NK possibly have anything better than Russia?
Russia’s army is built around deterring the US from nuking them + special operations against Chechens, North Korea’s army is built around a war of attrition with a country next door that’s armed by the US.
NK is sitting on stockpiles of ammo that works with old Soviet hardware. It’s not that old. It’s more recently produced. It just works with those system.
Russia has lost so much equipment they’re back to using that hardware. Including tanks like the T55. T54/T55s entered production in the early 1950s. Were made for about 30 years with slight variations through.
Pretty easy deal for NK to make. With certainly some benefit coming back to them from Pootin in the trade.
Short answer: Putin
Long answer: for last 25 years Putin and his oligarchs were destroying Russia.
In addition to what others have said NK spends about 1/3 of its GDP on its military. It definitely punches above its economic weight when it comes to war.
Anything is better than nothing.
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”?
I don’t think they’re better than modern Russian stuff but North Korean weapons are probably copies of Soviet ones. I’m guessing Russia is trying to bring some old shit back into service but their domestic military industry doesn’t make the old missiles anymore.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
These components primarily comprised the missile’s navigation system and could be traced to 26 companies headquartered in the US, China, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, Switzerland and Taiwan, the report says.
Along with extensive sanctions and export controls aimed at curbing access to Western-made technology, in late 2022 the Biden administration also set up an expansive task force to investigate how US and Western components, including American-made microelectronics, were ending up in Iranian-made drones Russia has been launching by the hundreds into Ukraine.
The fact that North Korea’s missile production appears to be fueled by parts originating in the West underscores how difficult it is for the US and its allies to control where commercial electronics are going, particularly semiconductor components that are extremely challenging to track once they enter the global supply chain.
And while Russia continues to be supplied by North Korea and Iran, the Biden administration has been unable to send new weaponry and equipment to the Ukrainian military because Congress has not approved the required supplemental funding to do so.
Intelligence officials in Washington are increasingly concerned about the growing ties between North Korea and Russia, CNN previously reported, and the long-term implications of what appears to be a new level of strategic partnership between the two nations.
Russia’s use of North Korean missiles on the battlefield in Ukraine may also give Pyongyang data it can’t get from a testing program that has seen dozens of the weapons fired over the past few years under leader Kim Jong Un.
The original article contains 738 words, the summary contains 237 words. Saved 68%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
We will end up building the weapons of our own destruction
“The last capitalist we hang will be the one who sold us the rope”
Nah we’ll use organic, locally sourced materials to deal with the last of the capitalists. Something that will return to nature just like their bodies.
The intent if the quote isn’t that cooperative capitalists will be shown mercy, but that capitalism by it’s very nature will destroy itself. If lynching calitalists comes into vogue, then someone will open a rope factory to squeeze out one last bit of profit before the end.
yeah it’s a dumb quote. you don’t need a capitalist to make rope.
It’s an allegory, dude. Is To Kill a Mockingbird a dumb title because theu don’t kill any birds?
It’s still super fucking dumb. I don’t give a shit.
There’s a non-zero chance we have already built them
Every now and again I go back and read through a bunch of their recent archives that I haven’t seen yet. Mr Weinersmith does make me laugh from time to time.
He’s yet to top that one lie detector skit though, at least in my estimation.
Surely most of those “US and European” manufacturers while having a HQ in the west have their manufacturing plants in China, not that far from North Korea?
We can’t expect to outsource all that manufacturing and have control over the supply chain. Not when China is involved.
Yet another reason to stop having manufacturing in china
We live in a society
