  The trans-Neptunian region of the solar system exhibits an intricate
dynamical structure, much of which can be explained by an instability-driven
orbital history of the giant planets. However, the origins of a highly
inclined, and in certain cases retrograde, population of trans-Neptunian
objects remain elusive within the framework of this evolutionary picture. In
this work, we show that the existence of a distant, Neptune-like planet that
resides on an eccentric and mildly inclined orbit fully accounts for the
anomalous component the trans-Neptunian orbital distribution. Adopting the same
parameters for Planet Nine as those previously invoked to explain the
clustering of distant Kuiper belt orbits in physical space, we carry out a
series of numerical experiments which elucidate the physical process though
which highly inclined Kuiper belt objects with semi-major axes smaller than 100
AU are generated. The identified dynamical pathway demonstrates that enigmatic
members of the Kuiper belt such as Drac and Niku are derived from the extended
scattered disk of the solar system.
