N. Korean citizens convicted for espionage in Ukraine could be released early in 2018

North Korean citizens who attempted to gain access to the technical documentation of the state-owned Pivdenmash machine-building plant, Ukraine’s leader in the rocket and aerospace industry located in the city of Dnipro (formerly Dnipropetrovsk), in 2011 and were sentenced to eight years in prison, could be released early in accordance with the Savchenko law, Anton Gerashchenko, a People’s Front parliamentarian, said.

“North Korean citizen Lyu Song Chel is still serving a sentence at Zhytomyr penitentiary No. 4. Li Te Kil is serving his sentence at Zhytomyr penitentiary No. 8,” Gerashchenko said on his Facebook page.

The so-called Savchenko law applies to them, he said. “Therefore, they are to be released earlier than if the Savchenko law did not exist. The end of their prison term, in light of the Savchenko law, is September 6, 2018,” the lawmaker said.

He recalled that North Koreans were exposed by counter-intelligence officers after they attempted to obtain access to Pivdenmash’s missile technologies documentation and were sentenced by a Mykolaiv Appeals Court ruling from November 27, 2011, to eight years’ imprisonment under the espionage article of the Ukrainian Criminal Code.

“I believe the detention and prosecution of North Korean citizens for attempts to obtain access to secret Ukrainian missile technologies is a demonstration of Ukraine’s real attitude to the issue of alleged supplies of technologies to North Korea,” Gerashchenko said.

He described information published in The New York Times on Ukraine’s alleged involvement in supplies of missile technologies to North Korea as manipulative. “The aim pursued by the author of the article is obvious, to muddy the water and plant a thought in the U.S. public opinion that Ukraine is taking hostile steps towards the United States and, therefore, there’s no need to support it in its fight against Russia,” he said.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said later that information regarding alleged supplies of Pivdenmash missile engines to North Korea is a provocation.

“The Pivdenmash information is a clear provocation against Ukraine. I rely fully on statement from Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council secretary and Pivdenmash itself that no such thing happened,” the prime minister said at a briefing in Dnipro on August 15.

There have not been and could not have been such supplies, he said.

The New York Times reported on August 14 citing conclusions by a missile expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies that the Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile launched by the DPRK in July may have been powered by an engine designed on the basis of the RD-250, which was developed for Soviet ICBMs in the 1960s.

The report names Pivdenmash, which The New York Times describes as “one of Russia’s primary producers of missiles even after Ukraine gained independence,” as the most likely supplier of technology for the building of the North Korean missile’s engine.

Pivdenmash dismissed the allegations aired by The New York Times and described them as an attempt to discredit Pivdenmash and Ukraine.