The IDF found large quantities of weaponry apparently made in North Korea in the Gaza Strip during the Swords of Iron War. Militarily, Hamas — like Iran’s other proxy organizations — is directly or indirectly connected to North Korea in various ways, such as weapons trading, training and exercises.
North Korea’s primary news agency, KCNA, has rejected such contentions and called them “a baseless, mendacious rumor.” The news agency further accused the U.S. of spreading a conspiracy theory designed to divert attention from its participation alongside Israel in the Gaza war. However, the findings proved otherwise after the IDF discovered North Korean RPG F7s among the weapons in Hamas caches in Gaza, as well as North Korean Bang 122 artillery shells.
How did North Korean weaponry reach Hamas in Gaza?
North Korea’s relations and deep partnership with Iran and Syria cover a history of many years, and so its military technology has reached Iran’s proxy organizations: Hezbollah, the Houthis and Hamas. In addition, North Korea’s ties with the Palestinians go back many years — to the beginning of the 1960s.
During those early years, North Korea began providing financial assistance and military training to PLO personnel; and later, during the 1970s and 1980s, Yasser Arafat and the head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine met separately with Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. Those meetings resulted in a constant supply of North Korean weaponry to the Palestinians. After the Cold War ended, ties between North Korea and the Palestinians dwindled; but in 2007 with the ascendancy of Hamas in Gaza, the ties were revived.
In July 2014, when Israel embarked on Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, Hamas requested military aid from North Korea. In that arrangement, Hamas received rockets and military communications equipment; and besides providing weaponry, financial aid and military training, North Korea may have also helped Hamas build its Gazan “Metro” — the network of Hamas tunnels — just as it helped Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Although it is hostile to the West and Israel, North Korea does not assist terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah for ideological reasons alone. Despite its long-standing support for members of the “Axis of Resistance,” apparently North Korea is primarily motivated — aside from ideology — by economic considerations. North Korea lives under heavy international sanctions, but by its involvement in activities such as sales of weaponry to terrorist organizations, it can obtain income to fund its own weapons programs.
North Korea is also pleased by the founding of an anti-American, anti-Western bloc which consists of Russia, China and Iran.
After Russia invaded Ukraine, North Korea sought a way to leverage strategic accomplishments in expanding its cooperation with Russia while interfering with U.S. efforts in Ukraine. Now, as in Ukraine, North Korea is seeking an opportunity to undermine U.S. interests in the Middle East as well while profiting economically from the conflicts there, such as Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza and against Hezbollah in Lebanon. These circumstances increase North Korea’s chances of expanding its sales of weaponry to terrorist organizations, and to Hamas in particular, following a special decree from Kim Jong Un, as early as November 2023, in support of the Palestinians.
North Korea missile launches
(Video: Reuters)
The North Korean angle is not publicized well enough, but it is dangerous and could cast its shadow over the war. North Korea’s illegal sales of weapons to Hamas could help that terrorist organization recuperate more quickly than expected after the critical blow in which most of its leadership in Gaza was eliminated — including the commander, Yahya Sinwar — and much of its war materiel and terrorist ground force was destroyed.
Standing with Iran, which is also suffering heavily in the current war, North Korea may profit economically and strategically as it improves the condition of the terrorist organizations during the war and especially afterward.
- Eran Lahav is a researcher at the Israel Defense and Security Forum - the IDSF, specializing in terrorism, global Jihad and Iranian proxies, an entrepreneur and podcast host.
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