North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered his officials to support Palestinians amid the Israel-Hamas war and could consider selling weapons to terror groups.
In the Middle East, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing South Korea’s intelligence agency. North Korea, which is facing a barrage of UN sanctions due to its nuclear programme, has sold anti-tank rocket launchers to Hamas in the past, South Korean lawmakers said after a briefing by the agency. They also said North Korea may attempt to export more weapons amid the war in Gaza, The Wall Street Journal report said.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Agency’s director Kim Kyou-hyun told lawmakers that Kim Jong Un is believed to have called for “wide support” for Palestine, in a bid to benefit from the war, according to the Korea Herald.
The development came after evidence from images and videos posted by Hamas showed that its fighters used suspected North Korean weapons when they launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7.
According to South Korean officials and two defence experts on North Korean weapons, Hamas had likely used a North Korean F-7 rocket-propelled grenade, a shoulder-fired weapon that fighters typically use against armoured vehicles, The Associated Press reported.
Another visual evidence also previously showed Hamas terrorists using suspected North Korean Bulsae-guided anti-tank missiles.
Last week, Pyongyang junked claims of Hamas using its weapons and claimed it was a “groundless and fake rumour” orchestrated by the US.
Last month, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry accused Israel of bombing the Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital hospital in the Gaza Strip, saying it had committed a war crime “under the undisguised patronage of the US”.
Israel said the blast was caused by a failed rocket launch by Hamas, which has denied responsibility.
ABOUT ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
Over 1,400 Israelis were killed after Hamas terrorists carried out deadly incursions through air, land and sea on Israel on October 7. They also took more than 200 people as hostages in Gaza during the infiltration.
Israel launched a deadly counteroffensive and declared war against Hamas which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007 with two stated goals — elimination of the terror group and freeing the hostages.
Over 8,500 people have died in Gaza since Israel’s attacks by first carrying out widespread airstrikes and then expanding its ground operations in the Palestinian enclave, which has been intensifying over the past three days.