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North Korea's Alliance with Syria Reveals a Wider Proliferation Threat
(Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Jay Solomon - According to U.S., Arab, and Israeli officials, North Korea's Kim Jong-un has continued to supply weapons and military equipment to Damascus throughout the six-year conflict despite facing numerous international sanctions. In recent months, UN investigators have uncovered North Korean supplies being smuggled to Syria's Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC), the secretive body that oversees Assad's chemical weapons program. Syrian opposition groups and the UN also allege that North Korean military advisors are present inside the country to help Assad. Many U.S. officials consider North Korea's construction of a graphite reactor in Syria's Deir al-Zour province as one of the greatest acts of nuclear proliferation in history. Called al-Kibar, the facility was almost an exact replica of the Yongbyon reactor that North Korea has used to harvest plutonium for its own nuclear weapons arsenal. The Syrian reactor was close to being operational when Israeli jets destroyed it in 2007, killing a number of North Korean technicians working there. The writer is a visiting fellow at The Washington Institute.