Israel Matzav

North Korea armed and trained Hezbullah

This shouldn't really be a surprise, but it was not something I expected to hear. North Korea - another of Condi Rice's favorite groups of terrorists - gave arms and military military training to Hezbullah and to the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. Oops. Talk about getting into fights that aren't yours....

North Korea may have given arms to Lebanon's Hizbullah and Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers, according to a report compiled for Congress that could complicate US plans to drop Pyongyang from its terrorism blacklist.

The report obtained on Wednesday by Reuters was written by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), which provides independent analysis to Congress, and cited "reputable sources" as saying Pyongyang had given arms and possibly training to the militant groups, which Washington regards as "terrorist" organizations.

...

The CRS report noted the long-standing US view that North Korea "was not known to have sponsored any terrorist acts since 1987"—when it was implicated in the bombing of a South Korean airliner—but suggested this was open to question.

"Questions about the credibility of the claim are relevant in view of the appearance of reports from reputable sources that North Korea has provided arms and possibly training to Hizbullah in Lebanon and the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka," the report added.

...

It said that in September 2006, Paris Intelligence Online, a French Internet publication that specializes in political and economic intelligence, had published details of an extensive North Korean program to give arms and training to Hizbullah.

...

The French publication said the program began in the 1980s with visits by Hizbullah members to North Korea for training and expanded after 2000 with the dispatch of North Koreans to Lebanon to train Hizbullah members how to build underground bunkers to store arms, food and medical facilities.

It said this training "significantly improved Hizbullah's ability to fight the Israelis" during the 2006 war.

The CRS document also cited a report by a prominent South Korean academic, Moon Chung-in, that the Mossad Israeli intelligence agency believed that "vital missile components" used by Hizbullah against Israel came from North Korea.

Lastly, the CRS report said the Sankei Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper, in September 2007 published a report that North Korea had shipped arms to the Tamil Tigers.

Another foreign policy 'breakthrough' bites the dust.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:44 PM