--- title: Tracking North Korea's Nukes | TIME description: TIME Correspondent Simon Shuster takes us to a factory in Ukraine where experts believe North Korea could have gotten the parts and the know-how to build their nuclear weapons. canonical: https://time.com/video/WA3XQxlL/ og:title: Tracking North Korea's Nukes og:description: TIME Correspondent Simon Shuster takes us to a factory in Ukraine where experts believe North Korea could have gotten the parts and the know-how to build their nuclear weapons. og:url: https://time.com/video/WA3XQxlL/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/WA3XQxlL/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Tracking North Korea's Nukes twitter:description: TIME Correspondent Simon Shuster takes us to a factory in Ukraine where experts believe North Korea could have gotten the parts and the know-how to build their nuclear weapons. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/WA3XQxlL/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Tracking North Korea's Nukes > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Tracking North Korea's Nukes [Watch (HLS stream): Tracking North Korea's Nukes](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/WA3XQxlL.m3u8) (8:57)  _Published 2018-01-31. TIME Correspondent Simon Shuster takes us to a factory in Ukraine where experts believe North Korea could have gotten the parts and the know-how to build their nuclear weapons._ --- Jul 28, 2023 4:20 AM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [North Korea's Insults on World Leaders](/video/dk98RTMu/) ### North Korea's Insults on World Leaders [Inside North Korea's Nuclear Threats](/video/PI9fO6wi/) ### Inside North Korea's Nuclear Threats [Iran Deal Won't Spoil North Korea's Appetite For Nukes](/video/YFQxnIIQ/) ### Iran Deal Won't Spoil North Korea's Appetite For Nukes --- ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] We are now going to the main production floor. The suspicion is that North Korea somehow got it's hands on this specific engines. [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ MUSIC ] [ SOUND ] For more than a decade North Korea's nuclear program didn't have the types of rockets that could carry a nuclear warhead very far [ MUSIC ] The ones they produced were mostly duds, known for crashing into the ocean or exploding on takeoff. But in 2017, the range of North Korea's missiles began expanding. And by the end of November, North Korea had tested a rocket that could go 13, 000 kilometers. Far enough to reach any point in the United States. Millions of Americans that have found themselves in the crossfire of a hostile nuclear power. No one is sure how North Korea pulled this off. They're only a handful of countries in the world that use these kinds of rockets and none of their arsenals have ever advanced so fast. Missile experts soon concluded that North Korea must have had help from outside. Their suspicion has focused on a range of rocket factories in the former Soviet Union. Whose designs looked a lot like the ones that North Korea has been using. One plant in particular has come under scrutiny. A secret facility known as Yuzmash in the volatile region of Eastern Ukraine. [ MUSIC ] All right Simon, where are we going? Into the elevator. Yes. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Here are the rules of behavior inside of the missile factory. Ukraine's government insists it would be nearly impossible to steal missile parts from places like Oshmash. In October they even allowed us to tour the facility so we could see for ourselves. So we're standing here in the middle of the main factory floor where they produce the rockets here at [ UNKNOWN ]. And right behind me here is the Cyclone- 4 rocket. The suspicion is that North Korea somehow got its hands on these specific engines. But founded during World War II to help the Red Army defeat the Nazis, The Yuzhmash plant went on to develop some of the Soviet Union's most powerful rockets. Today the factory makes tractors and trolley buses as well as rockets that carry satellites into space. But it still kept some of its military relics in stock, and there's a surprising number of them still scattered around Ukraine. [ MUSIC ] One of its old missile bases is near the Ukrainian town of Pervomaisk. It's a good place to see the type of technology that North Korea has been trying to clone [ MUSIC ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] Under pressure from the US and Europe, Ukraine agreed in 1994 to give up the stockpile of nuclear warheads it inherited from the Soviet Union. It also agreed to dismantle most of the rockets that were meant to carry those warheads. And what's left of these decommission bases like relics of the cold war. Ukraine's decision to scrap these weapons was a huge step for global disarmament and it lowered the risk of a nuclear war. Ukraine's move was a major step toward ensuring that nuclear missles never again will be targeted at the children of our nation. But for missile factories like Yuzhmash this meant financial ruin. According to US estimates, at least 15, 000 of Ukraine's best weapons experts lost their jobs in the early 1990s. Things only got worse after conflict broke out between Russia and Ukraine in 2014. The fighting came within a few hours drive of Yuzhmash and the instability has scared off many of its remaining clients. Today, parts of the storied factory are literally falling apart. One [ UNKNOWN ] worker sent us footage taken from inside the facility. There are leaking roofs, burst pipes in the bathroom, little safety equipment, and it appears to be freezing cold inside. Missile experts believe that as the factory declined, North Korea could have attempted to steal those secrets. It would not be the first time. [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ LAUGH ] [ FOREIGN ] I have dinner with workers at the factory who told me why some scientists might leave Ukraine to work somewhere else. [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] But whatever the temptation to go work in North Korea, no rocket scientist from Ukraine has ever been caught doing that. And even if they had, Kim Jong Un would have needed more than a few engineers to get his arsenal to where it is today. He would have needed missile engines, spare parts, and it's not easy to get all that from Ukraine. But it also not impossible. [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ SOUND ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] For two people it's okay. But for one it's a bit heavy . >> At an edcuational facility near by, a retired rocket scientist showed me rocket engines like the ones in North Korea's test launches . >> [ foreign ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] In the end, the rise of North Korea's arsenal most likely came down to a mix of factors. Help from abroad, bargains on the black market, and a lot of home grown engineering. The problem now is that any attempt to undo those technological advances will carry the risk of a nuclear war. [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ MUSIC ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Tracking North Korea's Nukes","description":"TIME Correspondent Simon Shuster takes us to a factory in Ukraine where experts believe North Korea could have gotten the parts and the know-how to build their nuclear weapons. 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