Thick as thieves-Pakistani,N.Korean nuke link

The Pioneer,India ^ | October 11, 2006 | Wilson John

[sukhoi-30mki]

Thick as thieves

Wilson John

Clandestine dealings between Pakistan and North Korea leave no room for doubt that their nuclear weapons programmes are closely entwined

On June 7, 1998, a gun shot shattered the tranquillity of Islamabad's posh colony, referred to as E-7, which houses, among other notables, AQ Khan, known, rightly or wrongly, as the father of the Pakistani nuclear bomb. The firing took place a few metres from away AQ Khan's residence. The dead woman was later identified as Kim Sa-nae, a member of the 20-strong North Korean nuclear scientists delegation living, as Pakistan media reports said, in AQ Khan's guesthouse.

The delegation had come to witness the Chagai test at the invitation of Pakistan Government. More importantly, Kim Sa-nae, well-known for her cold-noodles, a popular North Korean dish, was the wife of Kang Thae-yun, an economic counsellor at the North Korean embassy in Pakistan, who, according to US intelligence agencies, was a North Korean diplomat working on behalf of Chang-kwang Trading Company, the North Korean firm known to be a military hardware supplier and proscribed, along with Khan Research Laboratory by the State Department in 2003 for helping Pakistan's missile development programme.

AQ Khan said the murder was an accident: A cook accidentally fired a shot at the North Korean woman. The Pakistan Government chose to conduct neither an autopsy nor an investigation. The matter remained buried for a year till new clues surfaced in the US media, obviously prompted by intelligence leaks. Kim Sa-nae, as the stories goes, was killed by North Korean intelligence agents as she was suspected to be a US spy and was in the process of defecting with secrets about Korea's nuclear development programme and the country's involvement in missile and nuclear proliferation.

What followed her death was no less intriguing. On June 10, 1998, Kim Sa-nae's body was flown to Pyongyang in a Pakistan cargo plane, a US-built C-130, which was the same aircraft AQ Khan, in his 12-page confessional statement to President Pervez Musharraf, said he had used to ship plans and equipment for making a nuclear bomb.

According to the US media, quoting intelligence officials, the coffin carrying the body hid P-1 and P-2 centrifuges, used to enrich uranium to weapons-grade material, besides drawings, sketches, technical data and depleted uranium hexafluoride gas, which is converted into weapons-grade material in centrifuges. Other media reports, quoting Pakistani sources, said Shaheen Air International, one of several large corporations run by Pakistan's military, operated the cargo plane.

Adding further twist to the story was the claim that both the so-called mysterious death of Kim Sa-nae and the ferrying of the coffin in C-130 cargo plane was a diversion, crafted by the ISI, to hoodwink Western intelligence agencies. Kim Sa-nae's body, for instance, could have been flown by in an Air Koryo flight. Air Koryo had two flights per month to Islamabad. In fact, an Air Koryo plane was at Islamabad at the time of Kim's murder. The question is, why was Kim's body flown in a chartered military plane? The tale is that in fact, along with the military cargo plane, an Air Koryo flight also took off, on the same day, to Pyongyang, carrying the 19 North Korean nuclear scientists and engineers, along with the nuclear test equipment and test data.

The story is only an indication of the extent of nuclear and missile proliferation cooperation between Islamabad and Pyongyang that began in the early 1970s when then Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, anxious to counter India's growing military power, was keen on missile technology and equipment from North Korea.

Since then, both the countries have shared a relationship of proliferation which blossomed with Pakistan helping Iran to circumvent Western sanctions and procure weapons from North Korea during the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988). North Korean supplies (Scuds) were received at Karachi and transported in Pakistani trucks to Iran through Balochistan. During the Zia-ul Haq's regime, the ISI acted as a conduit to facilitate North Korean clandestine purchases, a practice followed up by Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif and Pervez Musharraf.

In fact, the ISI link in the Pakistan-North Korean nexus is a critical pointer. One of the key ISI officers who was involved in the nuclear and missile cooperation between North Korea and Pakistan was Major Gen (retd) Sultan Habib of Joint Intelligence Miscellaneous (JIM). He was the Defence Attache in the Pakistani Embassy in Moscow from 1991 to 1993.

It is reported that he was instrumental in large-scale clandestine procurement and theft of nuclear material. He was later posted as Ambassador to North Korea to oversee the nuclear and missile cooperation. It was Gen Habib who coordinated the clandestine shipping of missiles from North Korea and the training of the scientists. Gen Habib, incidentally, is also one of the beneficiaries of prime land allotments by the Musharraf regime.

There is enough evidence to prove that the relationship between Pakistan and North Korea is not just political but also at a deep military and intelligence level. These are reasons good enough for the international community to not only impose severe sanctions on Pyongyang but also on Islamabad. Dr Khan's pardon by President Musharraf will prove to be the biggest blow to non-proliferation.

(The writer is senior fellow, Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi)

[Mrs. Darla Ruth Schwerin]

"AQ Khan said the murder was an accident:..."

North Korea would never lie. They have such a good reputation for treating their people well...

[swarthyguy]

Hey, let's invade Iraq to teach the Pakistanis a a lesson.