Anchor: The National Intelligence Service has said that North Korea is making moves to support Palestine as the militant group Hamas wages war with Israel in the territory. The spy agency also said that the regime is in the final stages of preparation for a third attempt to put a reconnaissance satellite into space with the help of Russia.
Tom McCarthy has the details.

Report: The National Intelligence Service(NIS) has voiced concern that North Korea will actively support Palestine in the war between the militant group Hamas and Israel.

Ruling People Power Party lawmaker Yoo Sang-bum, a senior member of the National Assembly’s Intelligence Committee, said the spy agency shared the finding during a closed-door parliamentary inspection on Wednesday.

[Sound bite: National Assembly Intelligence Committee member Rep. Yoo Sang-bum (Korean-English)]
“The NIS has obtained intelligence that suggests North Korean leader Kim Jong-un instructed various agencies to find ways to comprehensively support Palestine in the war between Israel and Hamas, and the NIS believes that as Pyongyang has a history of exporting anti-tank weapons and multiple rocket launchers to Hamas and Hezbollah, the North could attempt to sell weapons to militant groups in the region and third-world countries.”

According to the NIS, such an arms sale would supplement enhanced smuggling efforts by North Korea as well as plundering from its own people as the regime seeks to fund advancements in its nuclear weapons and missile development.

[Sound bite: National Assembly Intelligence Committee member Rep. Yoo Sang-bum (Korean-English)]
“The National Intelligence Service believes that North Korea is seeking to take advantage of the Israel-Hamas war in multifaceted ways."

The agency said the North has already sent over one million artillery shells to Russia in some ten transfers since early August as its northern neighbor continues to wage war in Ukraine.

In return for the support, Moscow is believed to have provided technical assistance for Pyongyang’s third attempt to launch a rocket carrying what it claims is a military reconnaissance satellite.

The NIS said that launch preparations appear to be in the final stages and it is likely to succeed, but added that the North still suffers from insufficient funds and technological development.

The deficiency is responsible for the inability of the regime’s intercontinental missiles to reenter the atmosphere as well as stalled technological advancements related to multiple warheads. 

To fund its missile and nuclear programs, the North has smuggled out some 18-hundred kilograms of gold with a value of around 110 million dollars this year, while also pursuing cyber theft that netted at least three-point-45 million dollars before it was frozen by the South Korean spy agency in conjunction with the FBI in the U.S.
Tom McCarthy, KBS World Radio News.

[Photo : YONHAP News]