North Korea used its embassy in Berlin to procure parts for its missile program, the head of Germany's national intelligence office BfV told a German broadcaster.
No one at the North Korean embassy in Berlin was immediately available to comment on the allegation.
In a program to be broadcast on NDR television on Monday, BfV chief Hans-Georg Maassen said: “We have established that procurement activities have been carried out from there which are, in our view, done in view of the missile program and sometimes also for the nuclear program. "
He said that it was often the so-called "dual use" goods, which can be used for both civil and military purposes.
Comments released by NDR prior to the broadcast showed that Maassen said German authorities prevented such activities when they found them, but added: "We cannot guarantee that we can detect and prevent this in all cases."
He said it was necessary to assume that the parts for North Korea's launch program "were acquired through other markets or that underground buyers had bought them in Germany."
North Korea has challenged years of multilateral and bilateral sanctions with an arms program aimed at developing nuclear-tipped missiles capable of targeting the United States.