UKRAINE - The report caught the attention of the Ukrainian State Space Agency, which released a statement saying that "any accusations" of Ukrainian agencies' contributing to North Korea's ballistic missile programs are "groundless." Yuzhmash – the Ukrainian factory directly mentioned in the western report (as "KB Yuzhnoye") published a statement on its official website. "The assumption of the authors of the publication and the 'expert' cited by them regarding the possible connection of Ukraine with the progress of the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] in the development of missile technologies are not relevanting[sic] to reality," it said, adding that it "expresses sincere regret" over the New York Times "provocative" article "based on an incompetent 'expert' opinion."