North Korea’s Aid to Syria Could Spark Fire in Middle East

The Work Has Finally Begun

Work to disable some of North Korea’s nuclear facilities has finally begun, but it is unclear whether North Korea will abandon all of its nuclear development programs. Below is a summary of facts from a story appearing recently on the Japanese web site, The Daily Yomiuri Online:

• Before dawn on Sept. 6, Israeli Air Force the F-15 fighters secretly flew over the Syrian desert about 145 kilometers from the border with Iraq. Following coordinates from a guidance system set up on the ground by an Israeli commando unit known as Shaldag that had infiltrated the area, missiles from F-15s locked onto and destroyed a building east of the Euphrates River.
• The covert mission was reported by U.S. and British media. Though Israel has not disclosed details of the raid, the destroyed 47-meter by 47-meter building likely was a nuclear facility built with cooperation from North Korea.
• According to the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a private U.S. institution, the facility possibly accommodated a 20,000-kilowatt to 25,000-kilowatt nuclear reactor capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium.
• During a recent interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun, Maj. Gen. Aharon Zeevi Farkash, former chief of the Israeli Military Intelligence, pointed to a satellite photo of the building taken before the raid that was released by ISIS in October. The building closely resembled a nuclear facility in Yongbyong, North Korea, he said.
• Although North Korea and Syria have dismissed reports they might be cooperating on a nuclear facility, suspicions that they might have some “nuclear connection” are growing.
• In October, Workers’ Party of Korea Secretary Choe Thae Bok, visited Syria to meet with President Bashar Assad. The meeting, at which they discussed cooperation on nuclear programs, suggests ties between Pyongyang and Damascus have become cozy in recent times.
• He also revealed that Israel had been keeping a watchful eye on North Korea’s transference of nuclear development technologies to the Middle East for more than 10 years.
• But unease about the reclusive state’s possible nuclear aid to Syria has stirred distrust of the U.S. administration among members of the Congress and media, who previously had given scant attention to policies toward Pyongyang.

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NORTH KOREA'S NUCLEAR THREAT / DPRK aid to Syria could spark fire in Middle East
By The Yomiuri Shimbun

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Our Take

President Bush’s administration has taken a more conciliatory approach towards North Korea in recent times, and once the gears of policy begin to work in a particular direction they are hard to change. The Yomiuri Shimbun is wise to keep an eye on Syria and raise questions about North Korean/Syrian relations. We need to do the same.