Hindu Vivek Kendra
A RESOURCE CENTER FOR THE PROMOTION OF HINDUTVA
   
 
 
«« Back
Nuclear axis of evil

Nuclear axis of evil

Author: B Raman
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: November 10, 2002

North Koreas assistance to Pakistan in the development of its missile capability has been a quid pro quo for the latters assistance to North Korea in the development of its military nuclear capability.

After Pakistans nuclear weapon tests at Chagai in May, 1998, my Pakistani sources had claimed that one of the nuclear devices tested was of North Korean origin and that North Korean nuclear scientists were present during the testing. As this information was not corroborated by independent sources it was not disseminated.

Maj Gen (retd) Sultan Habib, an operative of Joint Intelligence Miscellaneous (JIM), who had distinguished himself in the clandestine procurement and theft of nuclear material while posted as the Defence Attache in the Pakistani Embassy in Moscow from 1991 to 1993, has recently been posted as Ambassador to North Korea to oversee the nuclear and missile co-operation between N Korea and Pakistan.

After completing his tenure in Moscow, he had co-ordinated the clandestine shipping of missiles from N Korea and the training of N Korean scientists in the nuclear establishments of Pakistan through Capt (retd) Shafquat Cheema, Third Secretary in the Pak Embassy in N Korea, from 1992 to 96.

On Capt Cheemas return to headquarters in 1996, the ISI discovered that in addition to acting as the liaison officer of the ISI with the nuclear and missile establishments in North Korea, he was also earning money from the Iranian and the Iraqi intelligence by helping them in their clandestine nuclear and missile technology and material procurement not only from N Korea, but also from Russia and the CARs. On coming to know of the ISI enquiry into his clandestine assistance to Iran and Iraq, he fled to Xinjiang and sought political asylum there, but the Chinese arrested him and handed him over to the ISI. What happened to him subsequently is not known.

The firing on May 25, 2002, of a N Korean made Nodong (I) missile, baptised Ghauri by Pakistan in 1998 to hoodwink its own population and the international community that the missile was the result of research by its own scientists, should be a matter of greater concern to the Bush Administration and Japan than to India because it provides evidence of the nexus between Pakistans military-intelligence and the N Korean nuclear-missile establishment. This nexus was established during the second tenure of Ms Benazir Bhutto as the Prime Minister when she made a clandestine visit to Pyongyang and subsequently nursed by successive regimes.

Pakistan was initially paying for the missiles and spare parts partly in kind (Pakistani, US and Australian wheat to meet N Koreas acute food shortage in the 1990s) and partly through supply of nuclear technology to help N Korea. During the last three or four years, Pakistani nuclear scientists have been working in N Korea and N Korean missile experts in Pakistan. Since September, 2001, the increased cash flow into Pakistan from the US, the European Union and Japan has enabled the military regime to pay for the N Korean missiles in hard currency.

Since the beginning of this year, there has been a large-scale movement of military goods under military escort to Pakistan from China along the Karakoram Highway. While most of these containers were said to contain spare parts and replacements for the Chinese arms and ammunition and aircraft in Pakistans arsenal, one should not rule out the possibility that the Chinese might have accepted the Pakistani request for the movement of the missile-related goods from North Korea by train and road across China and then along the Karakoram Highway.

This carefully-nursed co-operation between N Korea and Pakistan could not only help N Korea to develop a nuclear capability which could pose a threat to the USA and Japan, but could also make these missiles in Pakistan a tempting target for acquisition for the dregs of the present Afghan war from the Al Qaeda, the Taliban and the Pakistani jehadi organisations, which have made Pakistan the new staging ground for their anti-US and anti-West activities.

The New York Times cites American intelligence officials as coming to the conclusion that Islamabad was a major supplier for Pyongyangs nuclear weapons programme; and that this was more of a barter deal that involved North Korea supplying Pakistan with missiles to counter the nuclear arsenal of India. "What we have here is a perfect meeting of interests - the North Koreans had what the Pakistanis needed and the Pakistanis had a way for Kim Jong Il to restart a nuclear programme we had stopped," the Times quotes an official familiar with intelligence matters.

The American surprise at the recent N Korean admission of its nuclear weapon programme and the role of Pakistan in assisting N Korea in the implementation of this programme would show, firstly, that the US intelligence community is not as well-informed as it should be over developments in Pakistan and N Korea and, secondly, that even when it gets intelligence about Pakistans perfidy either in assisting North Korea in developing its military nuclear capability or in assisting Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups evade capture, the State Department and the US political leadership, for reasons not at all clear, choose to turn a blind eye to it.

Omar Sheikh, currently under detention in connection with the kidnapping and murder of journalist Daniel Pearl had told the Karachi Police during his interrogation that during one of his visits to Kandahar last year, he had come to know of the plans of Al Qaeda to launch the terrorist strikes of 9/11 against the US and had mentioned this to Lt Gen Ehsanul-Haq, the present Director-General of the ISI, who was then Corps Commander, Peshawar. Gen Pervez Musharraf and Ehsanul-Haq are friends. It is, therefore, inconceivable that Haq would not have mentioned this to Musharraf. Why did Haq and Musharraf keep silent on the information and did not immediately warn the US about it?

Nobody in the US seems to have gone into it just as they had not gone deeper into Pakistans nuclear assistance to N Korea. For how long is the US going to close its eyes to Pakistans perfidies and at what cost to innocent American lives and interests?
 


Back                          Top

«« Back
 
 
 
  Search Articles
 
  Special Annoucements