South Korea's military has drawn both a direct and indirect link between Palestine's Hamas militant group and North Korea in a wide range of areas, including arms trade, tactical doctrine and training.

Speaking to local media outlets on Tuesday, a high-ranking official from the Joint Chiefs of Staff(JCS) discussed the possibility that the North could apply Hamas' offense strategy in a surprise attack against the South.

The official said the Palestinian group's antitank weapon, reported in the media as an F-7, is the name given to the North's RPG-7 rocket propelled grenade launcher when exported to another country.

Noting the detection of repeated signs that Pyongyang is sending various weapons to countries and militant groups in the Middle East, the official specifically cited the identification of North Korean-made 122-millimeter multiple rocket launchers in border areas around Israel.

The JCS suggested that the Hamas tactic of incursion by motorized paragliders could have originated in the North, pointing to the regime’s reinforced air infiltration training using paragliders.

The military assessment also concluded that Hamas' attack in the early hours on a holiday, the incapacitation of Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system through an inundation of rockets and the destruction of surveillance and communication systems by drones resemble a scenario of asymmetric invasion by the North.

[Photo : YONHAP News]