To whom will North Korea sell its nuclear technology and expertise?
Cha, who authored the report, writes, “Imagine all the places where North Korea has sold every bit of military technology it has ever developed; it would not hesitate to share its expertise with either Hezbollah or Hamas.”
Now add that to the issues of the cross-border tunnels in the north and south, and the tens of thousands of rockets and missiles pointed at Israeli villages, towns and cities.
The details of the transactions for tunnel technology and military arms between North Korea and its Middle East partners are listed in a July 2014 U.S. District Court ruling.
Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that Iran and North Korea were liable for damages caused to dual American-Israeli citizens by missile attacks during the 2006 Second Lebanon War.
The lawsuit brought by the Israel Law Center (Shurat HaDin) on behalf of Chaim Kaplan and other plaintiffs was filed in a Washington federal court. In his decision, Lamberth wrote that the two countries were liable because they “provided material support and assistance to the Hezbollah terrorists who fired the rockets at Israel that caused the plaintiffs’ injuries.”
In the ruling, the judge said North Korea gave Hezbollah “advanced weapons, expert advice and construction assistance in hiding these weapons in underground bunkers and training in utilizing these weapons and bunkers to cause terrorist rocket attacks on Israel’s civilian population” with financing and transport assistance from Iran.
“[North Korean provided] critical assistance in building an extensive and sophisticated fortified tunnel network in the area south of the Litani River and bordering Israel,” Lamberth noted in his decision.
“This structure proved to be invaluable to Hezbollah in the course of the 2006 war. The configuration and parameters of the tunnel system closely resemble the layout of similar systems in the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea.”
Lamberth added that in addition to Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, other key Hezbollah agents who underwent training in North Korea in the late 1980s were Mustafa Badreddine, who served as the movement’s counter-espionage chief in the 2006 war, and Ibrahim Akil, head of Hezbollah’s security and intelligence service.
North Korea began arming Syria and Iran at that time as well. Among those who also made the trip was Iran’s Ali Khamenei, who visited Pyongyang just before he became Supreme Leader.
According to a 2010 report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS),
North Koreans reportedly helped Hezbollah actually build their underground tunnels and taught them how to hide weapons therein, while disguised as “domestic workers” for Iranian diplomats in Lebanon. They also trained Hezbollah members in the use of the tunnels as tactical weapons in terror operations.
At least two North Korean companies were named as possible suspects in carrying out these operations, and have been sanctioned by the U.S. and United Nations as a result: the Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation and the Green Pine Associated Corporation.