Report: Old Soviet Missiles May Have Given North Korea Nuke Boost

It's "highly likely" the ICBM North Korea tested last year was built with blueprints or parts that are similar to designs of Soviet weapons dating as far back as the 1960s, The Washington Post reports.

The paper said it based its report on a "new technical analysis" prepared for the British-based international security journal Jane's Intelligence Review.

The report could explain why North Korea was able to fast-track its missile development and "skip the months and even years of preliminary testing," The Post reported.

The Post said intelligence agencies have long believed that Soviet designs were the basis for many North Korean nukes.

"It is highly likely that North Korea made use of external knowledge, technology, or hardware, in the development of the Hwasong-15 ICBM," the analysis said.

The Post said it was authored by Markus Schiller, a German space technology analyst, and Nick Hansen, an imagery specialist who spent 47-years in the U.S. intelligence community.

The researchers reportedly used computer modeling and enhanced images of the North Korean missile to base a "partly circumstantial case" that foreign support "was derived from the Soviet-era ballistic missile program," The Post said.

"By any dimension, this looks Soviet to me, not Chinese," Schiller told The Washington Post.

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