South Korean intelligence agents claim the Palestinian militants have sourced rocket-propelled grenades from Pyongyang
Suspected North Korean-made F-7 rocket-propelled grenades are seen at an Israeli military base in southern Israel, October 15, 2023 © AP / Alon Bernstein
South Korean spies have accused North Korea of providing weapons to Hamas, but admit that evidence for this claim is “difficult to provide.” The US has made similar accusations before, which Pyongyang denies.
South Korea’s main intelligence agency, the National Intelligence Service (NIS), released a photograph on Monday of a North Korean F-7 rocket-propelled grenade purportedly used by Hamas in its war against Israel. The agency said an earlier picture of an F-7 rocket shared by US state news outlet Voice of America last week was genuine.
The NIS offered no explanation for how the rocket ended up in Gaza. The agency said it had collected “specific evidence regarding the scale and timing of North Korea’s supply of weapons to Hamas and others,” but that it is “currently difficult to provide such evidence due to the need to protect information sources and in consideration of diplomatic ties,” South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.
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The accusations are not new. Within days of the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, South Korean, American and Israeli sources told Western media outlets that the Palestinian militants had used North Korean weapons.
Pyongyang dismissed these reports as “groundless.” An editorial published by state-run KCNA news agency at the time asserted that the “reptile press” of the US was spreading false rumors in order to “shift the blame for the Middle East crisis caused by [Washington’s] hegemonic policy.”
North Korea has also been accused of supplying Russia with arms used in Ukraine. US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby claimed last week that Russian forces had used North Korean ballistic missiles in a barrage on targets in Ukraine last month. Moscow has denied sourcing any weapons from Pyongyang.
