The National Intelligence Service(NIS) says it has come across signs that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un instructed various agencies to find ways to comprehensively support Palestine in the war between Israel and Hamas. 

Ruling People Power Party lawmaker Yoo Sang-bum, who is a senior member of the National Assembly’s Intelligence Committee, said the spy agency revealed the assessment during the parliamentary inspection on the agency which was held behind closed doors on Wednesday. 

The agency said it believes the North could move to sell weapons to militant groups and third world countries, citing that Pyongyang has a history of exporting anti-tank weapons and multiple rocket launchers to Hamas and Hezbollah. 

The NIS also assessed that the regime has stepped up smuggling and plundering from its people to fund the advancement of its nuclear weapons and missile development and to provide Russia with war supplies. 

The agency cited that Pyongyang smuggled out some 18-hundred kilograms of gold bars this year, or triple the amount estimated last year. That’s worth roughly 110 million dollars. 

The NIS estimated that China and the North were behind 80 percent of hacking attempts targeting South Korea.

[Photo : YONHAP News]