A former Israeli official claims that North Korea not only exported missiles to Syria but also built factories there to produce Scud-C and Scud-D missiles.

Defense analyst Uzi Rubin, who used to oversee Israel’s missile defense program, said in an interview appearing Monday in the U.S. magazine Defense News that North Korean engineers were also helping the Syrians conduct ballistic missile tests and improve missile performance.

Scud-C missiles have a 500-kilometer range and Scud-Ds can go as far as a thousand kilometers.

While many have reported on missile cooperation between the two countries, Rubin's remarks are the first to suggest that they went as far as building missile plants.