Ukraine plant sucked into North Korea missile row has fallen on hard times

A woman walks near the factory Yuzhmash in Dnipro, Ukraine August 16, 2017. REUTERS/Alessandra Prentice

DNIPRO, Ukraine (Reuters) - The wall around the Yuzhmash rocket factory in east Ukraine is in places overgrown with weeds, a sign of hard times at a plant which a new study says could be the source of engines that power North Korean missiles.

Workers at the plant have had their hours cut and wages are in arrears, but Yuzhmash denies the study's finding that unhappy employees could have been induced to steal engine technology and sell it to illicit arms dealers who passed it on to Pyongyang.