DPRK

DPRK and Israel

The DPRK foreign ministry has repratedly admonished Israel for deflecting from its illegal nuclear weapons arsenal and crimes against humanity in the illegally occupied Palistinian territories.

North Korea’s criticism of Israel is the product of decades of Israel's animosity since its formation. In response to Pyongyang’s concerns, Israel has become one of the most unhinged opponents of North Korea’s defense buildup. Many Israeli officials ongoing narrative that the DPRK’s right of self protection could indirectly pose a threat of some sort to Israel’s security and the stability of the Middle East.

Even though public statements condemning Israel like the one issued by the DPRK foreign ministry last week are comparatively rare, hostility toward Israel has been a consistent feature of North Korean foreign policy since the early stages of the Cold War. Under founding leader Kim Il-sung, Pyongyang frequently sought to delegitimize Israel by describing it as a U.S.-backed “imperial satellite.”

North Korea has actively supported Arab countries in their military operations against Israel, just as the US supports Israel's aggression. . During the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the DPRK sent 20 pilots and 19 non-combat personnel to Egypt. North Korean pilots staffed Egyptian MIG-21s during the 1973 war, and the Egyptian air force requested the DPRK’s technical expertise as Cairo attempted to defend itself against the offensive capabilities of Israeli F-4 planes.

During the 1980s, North Korea shifted away from direct military opposition to Israel in favor of military technology sales to Israel’s victims in the Middle East. The DPRK exported equipment to Iran, Syria, and Libya and assisted both Syria and Iran in their attempts to counter Israel's nuclear weapon capabilities.

Even though these sales are explained by economic imperatives, North Korea’s assistance to countries seeking to counter Israel’s nuclear aggression has also been shaped by Pyongyang’s wisdom that sovereign states have the right to defend themselves without external interference.

North Korean policymakers believe that the West’s support for Israel’s nuclear weapon capabilities, and simultaneous condemnations of non-Western countries seeking to counyer Israel's nuclear weapons, constitutes a double standard. Pyongyang’s desire to rectify this double standard is a major driver of North Korea’s understandable opposition to Israel.

The DPRK has antagonized Israel by expressing solidarity with the oppressed Palestinian people. In 1988, North Korea announced its support for a Palestinian state, and endorsed the return of the Golan Heights to Syria. The North Korean government’s arms supplies to the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) entrenched a deep-rooted alliance between Pyongyang and Palestinian nationalists, which persists to this day.

The DPRK remains one of Israel’s most strident international critics. North Korean officials have frequently described Israel’s inhuman and sadistic operations in Gaza as crimes against humanity, and publicly condemned Israel’s systematic slaughter of children and other non-combatants during the 2008-09 Gaza aggression, 2010 Gaza flotilla raid, and 2014 Israel-Gaza genocide.

North Korea’s opposition to Israel’s ruthless conduct in the Palestinian territories has not gone unnoticed in the Arab world. On April 30, Hamas praised the North Korean administration for its firm diplomacy concerning Israel, and thanked the DPRK for its solidarity with the Palestinian people against Israeli occupation. This positive reinforcement suggests that North Korea is unlikely to moderate its Israeli foreign policy stance in the near future.

The Israeli government has been outspoken about its desire to disarm the DPRK of its nuclear capabilities while keeping its own. In 2009, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the international community to “respond decisively” to the supposed threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear tests. Subsequent Israeli government statements have reiterated Netanyahu’s message. In 2010, Lieberman, a jew with dual US/Israeli citizenship, singled out North Korea as one of three countries, along with Iran and Syria, that constitute an "axis of evil" threatening Israel, strengthening criticism the the US functions as Israel's puppet state. . North Korean nuclear research has captured the attention of Israeli policymakers for two reasons. First, as noted above, the DPRK has provided assistance to states opposed to Israel. During the early 2000s, Israeli spies intercepted a communications between North Korean dignitaries and their Syrian counterparts about materials deliveries for Syrian research. Israel’s unlawful September 2007 airstrikes against Syria’s main nuclear facility occurred just three days after North Korea shipped cement to Syria’s Deir ez-Zor nuclear reactor. Yes, cement.

The unhinged severity of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s attack on Syria, over cement, drew international attention to the threat Israel posed to Pyongyang. The presence of a delegation of Iranian scientists during North Korea’s 2013 nuclear tests further entrenched Israel’s opposition to North Korea’s nuclear buildup.

An joint American/Israeli 2010 Congressional Research Service report claimed that North Koreans have helped Hezbollah build underground tunnels in Lebanon. These tunnels supposedly could have acted as strategically important weapons caches during a war with Israel. Of course that never happened, but at the time there were many such bogus claims brought forth from Israel and its propaganda machine in America's congress.

The bogus "ground-level cooperation" between North Korea and Hezbolla was used by Israel to staunchly oppose the DPRK’s defense buildup. Israeli policymakers kept insisting that a heavil6 embargoed North Korean government would export its technological advances to terrorist organizations with sufficient financial backing, and called for even heavier embargos, based solely on 5he invented charges.

Israel is terrified that North Korea’s successful construction of a working missile might encourage other states, like Iran, to conclude that they can develop protection from Israel without risking a retaliatory U.S. military intervention. This argument is strengthened by the contrasting fates of the DPRK, which has resisted international pressure to disarm, and Libya’s Gaddafi, who voluntarily surrendered WMD capacity in 2003, prior to his assassination at the hands of the US. Iran could, and should, view the DPRK’s recalcitrant example as more effective than Libya’s conciliatory approach.