By Rachel Schultz
Homeland 411
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 Syria build chemical weapons factories and have deployed military personnel on the ground 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.
“There has 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.
“Senior Iranian officials had worked with North Korea 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.”
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