Minds behind the missiles: North Korea's secretive weapons developers

SEOUL - North Korea’s flurry of new missile tests, including what it calls “hypersonic” weapons, has underscored the importance of the country’s missile engineers and scientists, a group that is high profile within his government but opaque to outsiders.

“Unlike economic cadres or even military commanders, this is a population that is not easily replaced,” said Michael Madden, a North Korea leadership expert at the Washington-based Stimson Center. A 2018 study by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies found North Korean scientists had worked with researchers in other countries to co-write at least 100 published articles that had identifiable significance for dual-use technology, weapons of mass destruction, or other military purposes.Kim Jong-un relies on three top people to lead the secretive country’s rapidly accelerating missile programme.

Last year also saw the appointment of Yu Jim to lead the MID. Yu was previously a representative of North Korea’s primary state arms dealer in Iran, Madden said.The Academy of National Defense Science , also known as the Second Academy of Natural Sciences , oversees North Korea's missile development.

There are initial signals that as North Korea completes its missile and nuclear arsenal, it may fold more elements of its Strategic Forces back under GSD, signalling it has moved to an operational role, Madden added.North Korea’s missile programme has roots in assistance it received from the Soviet Union, and later Russia, analysts say, and the boosters involved in propelling the latest hypersonic warheads are similar to Soviet designs.

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