(Bloomberg) -- Ukrainian researchers say they’ve discovered components produced by western companies in North Korean missiles Russia used to attack the country, highlighting the need to enforce export controls.
Microcontrollers, semiconductors and other elements produced by at least nine manufacturers were found in a North Korean KN-23/24 missile, the Independent Anti-Corruption Commission or NAKO said in its report released Thursday. The missile was shot down on Sept. 7 over Ukraine’s central Poltava Region, said the non-governmental organization.
Western components include integrated circuits crucial to missiles’ navigation and communication systems, Viktoria Vyshnivska, NAKO’s senior researcher, told a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday. All analyzed parts fall under export controls, she said.
Russia is still obtaining vital Western components to build missiles it uses to attack Ukraine’s people and energy and trade infrastructure, despite ever-growing sanctions intended to prevent such technology transfers, Bloomberg reported earlier in October.
While most components in the missile analyzed by NAKO were manufactured by US companies, including Analog Devices Inc. and Broadcom Inc., some were made by the Swiss TRACO Electronic AG, the British XP Power Ltd and the Dutch NXP Semiconductors N.V. last year, the investigators said.
Analog Devices, Broadcom and NXP said they did not sell any components to North Korea and that they were working with authorities on ways to improve compliance to prevent the illegal diversion of their products. Broadcom also said that such components are frequently counterfeited. XP Power and Traco Power did not promptly reply to requests for comment.
The presence of western microelectronics was “bad news” given how long North Korea has been under sanctions, said Vladyslav Vlasyuk, the Ukrainian President’s Commissioner for Sanctions Policy on Thursday. “Scientific and industrial cooperation between North Korea, Russia, Iran and maybe some other terrorist regimes intensifies,” Vlasyuk said at the event. “They are exchanging engineers and technologies.”
Russia added North Korean missiles to its arsenal late last year, whose use caused civilian casualties and destroyed critical infrastructure in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has warned of Pyongyang’s increasing support for Moscow’s war.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol convened an emergency security meeting on Friday to discuss the deployment of North Korean combat troops to help Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine.
--With assistance from Hugo Miller, Jake Rudnitsky, Gao Yuan and Ian King.
(Updates with context in fourth paragraph)
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