Moscow has strongly denied reports that North Korea received technology support from Russia in developing ballistic missiles that may have sufficient range to hit the United States

Russia's Interfax News Agency quoted Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov as saying that Moscow has never provided to North Korea or any other country any illegal or banned material.

Earlier on Wednesday, Jane's Defence Weekly, a British magazine on military affairs, said that the North is developing at least two new ballistic missile systems which appear to be based on a decommissioned Soviet submarine-launched missile, the R-27.

The reports said that the North had acquired the relevant know-how during the 1990s from Russian missile specialists and by buying 12 former Soviet submarines that had been sold for scrap metal but retained key elements of their missile launch systems.