In January 2024, it was reported that South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) confirmed that Hamas has been using also North Korean-made weapons to fight Israel. Earlier, in November 2023, media informed that the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered officials to come up with ways to "comprehensively support Palestine."[1]
Relations between North Korea and the Palestinian leadership date back to the 1960s, as Pyongyang assisted and trained the PLO and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a Palestinian Marxist-Leninist Palestinian organization founded by George Habash (who visited Pyongyang in 1970). Abu Daoud, mastermind of the Munich massacre, also received training by the North Korean military. Since the rise of Hamas in the Palestinian camp, North Korea has been supporting the Islamist movement in their common fight against the collective West.
It is worth noting that North Korea recognizes Palestinian sovereignty over the entirety of the Israeli territory, excluding the Golan Heights (which it regards as Syrian territory).
"This photo, provided by the National Intelligence Service, South Korea's spy agency, on January 8, 2024, shows an F-7 rocket-propelled grenade launcher manufactured in North Korea suspected to have been used by the Hamas militant group. Korean characters are engraved inside of the fuse (in blue circle) of the grenade launcher." (Source: Yonhap)
Yasser Arafat sits with the founder of North Korea Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang (Source: Rodong Sinmun, June 26, 1989)
PLO leader Yasser Arafat with the founder of North Korea Kim Il Sung (Source: X)
PLO leader Yasser Arafat with the founder of North Korea Kim Il Sung (Source: X)
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Senior Hamas Official Ali Baraka: North Korea Is Part Of Our Alliance
On November 2, 2023, Senior Hamas official Ali Baraka praised North Korea in an interview posted on Spot Shot (Lebanon). In the interview, Baraka said that all of Americas enemies are growing closer and the day may come when they join the war and turn America into a thing of the past. He said that the only country that is capable of striking America directly is North Korea.
"Iran does not have weapons that can reach America, but it can strike Israel and the American bases and ships in the region, if the U.S. clearly expands its intervention. North Korea, however, does have the capability to strike America. The day may come, when North Korea intervenes, because it is, after all, part of [our] alliance," Ali Baraka stated.[2]
Hamas Thanks North Korea
In 2017, the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un received many praised in the Gaza Strip, after Pyongyang threatened to punish Israel. "Our consistent message is to mercilessly punish those who offend the dignity of our leadership," the statement of the DPKR Foreign Ministry stated, which came in response to the declaration of Avigdor Liberman, who was at the time Israeli defense minister, that defined Kim Jong Un as "extremist and insane."[3]
As a result of North Korean declarations, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri stated on Twitter: "Hamas appreciates North Korea statement in which it supported the Palestinian's struggle and rejected the continuation of occupation," Abu Zuhri said on his Twitter account. "Hamas refuses Israeli abuse of North Korea and confirms that Israel is the leader of evil and terrorism in the world," he added.[4]
The son of Salam Rabaa, the Palestinian owner of Rabaa restaurant, gestures with his right hand imitating a poster of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, at the gate of the venue premises in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza strip. (Source: AFP/Mohammed Abed, 2017)
A Palestinian cashier waits at the entrance of the Rabaa restaurant in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza strip on December 17, 2017, next to posters depicting North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un and reading in Arabic: "Special discounts reaching up to 80 percent for Korean patrons, in appraisal of the role of the Korean leader towards our Palestinian cause." (Source: AFP/Mohammed Abed, 2017)
[1] Koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2024/06/103_362450.html, November 2, 2023.
[2] MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 10936, Senior Hamas Official Ali Baraka On Reports Of Kim Jong Un's Support For Hamas: Unlike Iran, North Korea Is Capable Of Striking The U.S.; One Day, Russia, China, And All America's Enemies May Join The War And Turn The U.S. Into A Thing Of The Past, November 3, 2023.
[3] Timesofisrael.com/n-korea-lashes-out-at-malicious-liberman-for-insulting-leadership/, April 29, 2017.
[4] Newarab.com/news/hamas-thanks-north-korea-lashing-out-israel, May 1, 2027.
