Just days before the U.S.-North Korea summit, a Washington Institute for Near East Policy discussion on June 7 examined North Korea’s far-reaching negative impact on the Middle East and Africa, emphasizing caution in dealing with the rogue nation.
“The North Koreans have been helping the Syrians build chemical weapons facilities and have actually deployed their military personnel on the ground in Syria to help the Assad regime,” said Jay Solomon, a visiting fellow at the institute. He noted North Korea’s help to construct nuclear reactors in Syria, which led to several Israeli airstrikes, the first one in 2007. Most recently, the United States and its allies destroyed Syrian chemical weapons facilities in April—also linked to North Korea, according to Solomon.
Solomon also emphasized North Korea’s longtime involvement in Middle East politics and conflicts. This included sending pilots to fly missions in the Yom Kippur War against Israel, sending engineers to assist Iran militarily in the Iran-Iraq War, and selling SCUD missiles to countries like Egypt and Syria.
Anthony Ruggiero, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, explored North Korea’s dealings with Iran.
“It’s certainly been a robust missile relationship between North Korea and Iran,” Ruggiero said. “It was serious enough for the Obama administration to sanction Iran just a day after the [2015 Iran nuclear deal framework] was implemented.”
In May, President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal.
“The Treasury Department during that designation noted that senior Iranian officials had worked with North Koreans for several years,” Ruggiero added.
He also said that they traveled to Pyongyang to work on a missile component. The cooperation benefits both countries, leading to a more rapid expansion of both of their nuclear programs.
Nuclear collaboration between North Korea and its allies in the Middle East has fallen off a bit recently, but that may be due more to dissatisfaction with North Korean products than anything else, Ruggiero said.
Currently, North Korea is working on different types of missiles that have a longer range and are harder to detect. Ruggiero also agreed that North Korea is directly aiding Syria’s production of chemical weapons, stating that ships containing chemical weapon factory components were intercepted en route to Syria. In addition, he said North Koreans have worked at Syrian chemical facilities.
“I don’t have to say how important it is that a country like North Korea is working on chemical weapons with a country like Syria, that unfortunately uses [them] on its own population,” Ruggiero said. “This is certainly an issue that needs to be raised by the Trump administration, if not the president himself.”
Kongdan “Katy” Oh, from the Institute for Defense Analyses and coauthor of North Korea Through the Looking Glass, said Iran is probably the most influential country in the Middle East, and North Korea also plays a huge role, ranking in the top 10 countries for the sway it enjoys there.
Syria has been closely related to North Korea since Kim Jong-un’s grandfather, Kim Il-sung, was in power, while it has no relations with South Korea, Oh said. Syrian leader Bashar Al-Assad has regularly sent Kim Jong-un well wishes and cash, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. There is even a monument to Kim Il-sung in Damascus.
Oh cited the testimony of Thae Yong-ho, a high-ranking former North Korean diplomat and defector who escaped to South Korea in 2016, in her remarks. In retaliation for his defection, 3,000 of Thae’s associates and family members were either killed, tortured, or put in prison camps by the North Korean regime, including those who had only the slightest contact with him. In May 2018, he published a book about his experiences.
In 1999, Thae reportedly oversaw negotiations between an Israeli ambassador and North Korean diplomats in Stockholm, Sweden. At the time, North Korea had just finished a successful missile test launch and was planning to export their nuclear missile technology to Iran and other Middle East countries. North Korea asked the Israeli diplomat to negotiate a cash deal in exchange for calling off missile sales to Israel’s enemies. The North Koreans asked for $1 billion in U.S. currency.
After some discussion, Israel returned some time later with a counteroffer: Instead of cash, would North Korea be willing to accept up to $1 billion worth of food and medical help for its starving citizens and agricultural technology? Despite being in the midst of a severe famine, which was killing upwards of 2 million people, North Korea refused the offer. It was either cash or no deal, they said. Israel refused, citing the U.S. disapproval that such a deal would bring. Oh commented that this story illustrates the cynicism of the North Korean government; they are prepared to negotiate with anyone, even their enemies, if the price is right.
Oh said that the only lasting chance for peace with North Korea is “internal changes-socially, economically, politically.”
Ruggiero said it’s a mistake for the United States to limit its focus to nuclear weapons, instead of including chemical weapons and other North Korean shady dealings, such as the exporting of slave labor.
He cited reports of North Korean forced labor being used in foreign countries, such as to build an arena for the World Cup competition in St. Petersburg, Russia. There have been complaints of poor working conditions, long hours, and even deaths.
“The North Koreans will do almost anything for a buck,” Ruggiero said. “What I’m talking about here are slave-like conditions, where the revenue goes straight back to the regime.”
Solomon explained the importance of the Middle East to North Korea. “The Middle East is central to their overall cash flow,” he said.
Egypt recently had its U.S. funding cut after being caught receiving at least 30,000 rocket-propelled grenades from North Korea.
“[The North Koreans] were using their embassy in Cairo as one of the main kind of hubs through which to sell weapons into Africa, which continues to be one of their main kind of export markets,” Solomon said.
He added that every country in the Middle East, with the exception of Israel, is involved in weapons trade with North Korea. North Korea uses “shell companies” as a front to buy and sell weapons and other items in order to flout the sanctions that have been imposed on the country, he said.
Oh said she is not optimistic about the chances for a quick outcome to the negotiations, citing the arms reduction negotiations with the former Soviet Union, which took place over a period of 15 years, as an example.
“[I]t will take a long time to denuclearize North Korea,” she said.
But, she said, North Koreans are increasingly distrusting and resentful of their “dear leader,” which is a positive development. They are weary of the constant militarization of their country, and they are secretly turning to capitalism in an increasingly desperate economy.
“North Korea has 3.7 million cell phones,” Oh said. “They can talk to the people [on the] northern border of China, Russia, even South Korea; they are stealth capitalists; during the day, [it’s] ‘Heil Hitler’ or ‘Heil Kim,’ … but nonetheless, at night, they hate them and they are trying to be capitalists to survive; they don’t give a damn anymore in terms of following the party line.”
She also explained why she thinks Kim Jong-un reached out to South Korea and the United States.
Before, she said, Kim Jong-un had two goals: nuclear weapons and building a stronger economy. Now that North Korea has achieved its first goal, he can focus on the second.
“Our president was a former businessman, and he wants to deal from the business viewpoint, so when the price is right, I think [there is a possibility],” Oh said, “but the first step will be [a] tough step, and I cannot predict anything.”
Rachel Schultz is a staff writer for Homeland411.
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