How has North Korea managed to make such astounding progress with its long-range missile programme over the last two years? Here, Michael Elleman shares the first solid evidence that North Korea has acquired a high-performance liquid-propellant engine from illicit networks in Russia and Ukraine.
![North Korea ICBM success](https://cdn-ak-scissors.b.st-hatena.com/image/square/342541859a057d46e756a431166d0e50140e4f59/height=288;version=1;width=512/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.iiss.org%2Fglobalassets%2Fmedia-library---content--migration%2Fimages%2Fcomment%2Fanalysis%2F2017%2Fseptember%2Fkim-jong-un-looking-at-a-metal-casing-424x238.jpg)