Russia denies it gave missile know-how to North Korea

Russia dismissed on Thursday reports it had supplied North Korea with technology for missiles capable of striking the United States.
Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov was quoted by news agencies as saying that the suggestions, published in Jane's Defence Weekly on Wednesday, were "a myth" and that Russia had never illegally provided military technology.
Jane's said communist North Korea acquired the know-how from Russian missile specialists during the 1990s and by buying 12 former Soviet submarines. The submarines had been sold for scrap metal but retained key elements of their missile launch systems.
"We know who really was involved in creating the North Korea nuclear problem. The problem is definitely very serious, but the suggestion that Russia was involved in creating it is a myth," Ivanov was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying.
He did not identify who had been involved with North Korea.
Jane's said the missiles could be launched from submarines and be used to carry nuclear warheads, which the United States says Pyongyang has admitted possessing.
North Korea pulled out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in January 2003 and is locked in long-running crisis talks with the United States, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea over terms for scrapping its atomic weapons programme.
Ivanov said the allegations were an effort by the guilty parties to avoid responsibility by making Russia a scapegoat for another weapons proliferation scandal.
"Today it is Korea, tomorrow Iran will come up again, the day after tomorrow it will be Sudan, all these allegations are unfounded," Interfax quoted him as saying.
"I authoritatively say that Russia never sold anything illegal and forbidden, including to North Korea," Itar-Tass news agency quoted him as saying.
Washington has criticised Russia for supplying Iran with nuclear technology, which Moscow and Tehran say is for peaceful purposes. Russia has also been criticised by human rights groups for selling warplanes to Sudan.
The latest allegations were particularly serious because missiles based on submarines or warships could be positioned close to their targets before being launched, giving them greater range than land-based weaponry.