how a homemade tool helped north korea\'s missile program

James Pearson and Seoul, South Korea ,(Reuters)-
A popular video from North Korea celebrated a new national hero on 2009 --
External experts will later realize that this is at the heart of nuclear and missile programs banned by this mysterious country.
In factories around the world, computer numerical control (CNC)machine.
Large, gray and square CNC machines use pre-
The programming guide produces complex parts for everything from cars and mobile phones to furniture and clothes.
They provide precision that human machine operators cannot achieve.
In North Korea, thanks to the combination of self-made technology and reverse engineering, these machines now play a key role in weapons projects.
They allowed Mr. Kim to build nuclear bombs and missiles without relying heavily on external technical assistance or imports.
Nuclear weapons experts say that while the international community has imposed sanctions on the transfer of sensitive equipment, it has helped him accelerate missile and nuclear tests. (
About \"North Korea nuclear --
\"North Korea\'s centrifuges and new missiles are all dependent on components made with CNC machine tools,\" said Jeffrey Lewis, head of East Asia non-proliferation program at the Monterey midbury Institute for Strategic Studies, California. \"(They)
It is the basic technology for the production of missiles and nuclear weapons . \"
Since 1996, CNC machine tools have been included in the Waen arrangement, an international arms control regime designed to prevent the proliferation of civilian and military equipment.
North Korea is not a signatory.
China is very enthusiastic about the celebration of its CNC technology.
During the Korean Workers\' Party celebrations in 2010, hundreds of bright orange and green dancers performed CNC pop songs called breakthrough frontier.
According to Singapore\'s Choson Exchange, on 2012, South Korea\'s popular song \"Gangnam Style\" was released, and North Korea\'s CNC title was on a nationwide karaoke machine.
A company that trains the business skills of North Koreans.
The official video of the song started for a long time.
The North Korean rocket flew into a blue sky.
Nuclear experts say South Korea may begin developing its own CNC machines in early 1990 as part of its efforts to manufacture complex missiles and nuclear weapons.
It may have learned how to make them by taking apart machines imported from the Soviet Union.
The first domestic CNC machine tool was launched in 1995.
According to 2009 articles in the state-run newspaper Labor News, former leader Kim Jong Il gave the machine the \"Ryonha\" brand.
This is the first time the official media mentioned the technology.
2009 of the time, the machines had become the mainstay of North Korea\'s propaganda, as Pyongyang launched a nationwide campaign to promote domestic industrial development.
Following the second and long-term nuclear tests, sanctions are increasing
Launched a long-range missile that year.
At the time, arms control experts expressed concern over a visit by former leader Kim Jong Il to a North Korean factory that appeared to be producing aluminum tubes.
These can be used in nuclear centrifuges.
Kim Heung said: \"about 2010, they seem to be able to make CNC machines of all kinds
Gwang, a North Korean defector, taught at Hamhung University of Computer Technology in Pyongyang before he defected to South Korea.
But until 2013, Korea\'s Ryonha Machinery joint venture, which produced these machines, was blacklisted by the United States. N.
Security Council in support of the weapons program.
It was not until August that the US government began to value the issue. S.
North Korea may be able to build its own missile engine, intelligence officials told Reuters. Now, Kim Heung-
According to gwang, there are about 15,000 CNC machine tools in North Korea.
He is based on reports and photos from North Korean state media, as well as interviews with more than a dozen scientists, professors or factory workers who have left North.
Pyongyang praised the homemade machines as a victory for its ruling ideology, Juche. sufficiency.
But this is not true.
On August 2016, state media released photos of Kim Jong Un visiting the CNC machine factory marked by ABB, a Swiss engineering company.
UL is one of the leaders in the Global CNC Machine Tool Market.
It is unclear when and how the machine will arrive in North Korea.
ABB said it respected all applicable trade sanctions against North Korea and promised not to deliver ABB equipment to North Korea.
\"That is to say, we cannot rule out that some of our equipment may have been resold to DPR in Korea without our knowledge or approval, in response to a Reuters investigation, the company used the official title of North Korea.
A un monitoring panel on sanctions against North Korea said in a report this year that China\'s Tengzhou kelonda CNC Machine Tool Co. , Ltd. is a supplier of new CNC machine tools in Pyongyang.
A sales representative from colonda, Tengzhou, told Reuters that the company stopped selling CNC machines to North Korea four years ago and no longer maintained trade relations with North Korea.
Despite the sanctions, CNC machine tools are common in North Korea\'s manufacturing industry and can be introduced through China and Russia.
Geun, senior researcher at Korea Institute of Science and Technology Policy.
The biggest loophole is that although some CNC machines are banned because they can have both military and civilian functions at the same time, most machines serve the civil industry.
\"Given their double
The ability to use, you can even import machines for other purposes, cut them into pieces and use them as you like, \"said Li.
The CNC song highlighted this in its opening remarks: \"No matter what it is, there is a program that can be implemented once we make up our minds,\" it said. (
James Pearson and Han Hee Shin are in Seoul;
Additional reports from Matt Spetalnick and David Brunnstrom in Washington, Beijing\'s Lusha Zhang;
Editor of Lincoln Feast and Sarah Ryder