Pakistan And The Korean Nuclear Horn

Anger mounts against Pak after North Korea N-bomb test, nations urged to review ties with Islamabad

Zee News

New Delhi: The latest North Korean nuclear explosion is one element of the anger against Pakistan in Washington and the other element being its “duplicity” in the war against terror, an expert said.

The latest test has demonstrated North Korea’s ability to strike its Asian neighbours, mainly its rivals South Korea and Japan, an expert said, adding that The Washington Post today stands vindicated as it had first made it public that Pyongyang acquired the technology from Pakistan.

In 2011, the paper had reported that the founder of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb Abdul Qadeer Khan had disclosed that North Korea bribed top military officials in Islamabad to obtain access to nuclear technology in the late 1990’s.

According to a report, the 9th September nuclear detonation is a “logical continuation of the 2011 reports in The Washington Post”.

North Korea’s nuclear weapons can be mounted on a variety of its missiles capable of reaching Seoul and Tokyo. Hence, South Korea and Japan need to review ties with Pakistan after North Korea’s 5th nuclear test, the ANI news agency quoted nuclear expert Whang Joo Ho of Kyung Hee University as saying.

The North Korean SCUD and Midrange Rodong are capable of delivering a nuclear attack on both South Korea and Japan.

Recounting Pakistan’s role in the development of the North Korean Nuclear Program, experts said what AQ Khan started in the late 1990’s is “now coming home to roost and the two most threatened nations are Japan and South Korea.”

Citing the experts, ANI further reported that If anything Japan and South Korea need to question the “fountain head” for this technology which has brought the world to this point where a virtual rogue state now has nuclear weapons, the report said citing US analysts.

Experts said that “Even the Pakistani President in 2006, General Pervez Musharraf, had accused AQ Khan of profiting from nuclear related commerce but did nothing to punish other members of the Pakistani establishment who were involved in nuclear trade with North Korea.”

The North Korean nuclear blast is one element of the anger against Pakistan in Washington. The other element being Pakistan’s “duplicity” in the war against terror, another expert said.

On September 8th, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Corker, anguished over the flow of over 33 billion US dollars to Pakistan over the years while Islamabad continued to give safe haven to terror groups who were involved in the killing of American troops in Afghanistan.
Bob Corker told the Committee that “the Government of Pakistan knows where they (terrorists) live.”
Corker has been instrumental in the stopping of the sale of eight F 16`s to Pakistan and the holding back of over 300 million dollars in military aid.

Sources at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who were contacted after the North Korean Nuclear explosion said “a number of influential Senators are seeking answers on how North Korea got to this point”.

The administration should have conducted detailed investigations on reports about Pakistan’s shipments of Centrifuges and other technology which North Korea bought and which has today presented the US with a real headache on how to protect its two close allies – Japan and South Korea from a unpredictable regime with a deliverable Nuclear Weapon.

Sources said the real issue is not North Korea, as nothing more was expected from a regime which has refused to move on from the 1953 Armistice and which remains in a state of hostilities against the West but the country which sold the technology and drawings.

Along with the United States, both Japan and South Korea need to review their ties with Pakistan because North Korea`s fifth nuclear test has now changed everything in the Asian theatre.