[LarryW]

It's a dirty business this learning and building war.

UN report reveals how North Korea sources missile technology

As the US ratchets up pressure on China to do more to help rein in North Korea, a UN report shows how Pyongyang uses technology smugglers and financial institutions to develop missiles and nuclear weapons. China figures prominently in the report.

UN members have imposed an array of trade sanctions on North Korea after it violated UN Security Council rulings to halt its testing of ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons.

However, an eight-member UN panel said North Korea is intensifying such tests and that UN member states are not doing enough to enforce the sanctions.

North Korea “is flouting sanctions through trade in prohibited goods, with evasion techniques that are increasing in scale, scope and sophistication,” the panel’s report dated Feb. 28 says.

The report cites Chinese components and European parts acquired through China that were recovered from the debris of a North Korean missile launch. They included what the report described as an electromagnetic interference filter for a camera, pressure transmitters, and ball bearings traced to Russia.

While the report did not say what function the transmitters and filter performed, the transmitters were manufactured in China and sold to a Beijing-based company that then sold them to Beijing Xinjianteng Century Technical Technology.

The company did not provide the identity of the North Korean buyer, the report said.

The debris was acquired from the February 2016 test of North Korea’s Unha-3 space launch vehicle that was developed from the Taepodong-2 long-range missile.

“That case demonstrates the continuing critical importance of high-end, foreign-sourced components in manufacturing the Unha-3, and the ability of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to diversify its procurement channels, even for the same components,” the report said.

In another case, the UN found that North Korea set up a front company in Malaysia called Glocom that was used to produce military communications gear.

(more)

http://www.atimes.com/article/un-rep...le-technology/