In the United States, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) believe that North Korea may have been selling weapons to HAMAS and cooperating with them on a range of military issues in preparation for a terrorist group's attack on Israel. This information, citing a high-ranking JCS officer, is reported by Yonhap.
South Korean experts arrived at this conclusion following the assessment of unprecedented HAMAS attacks on October 7, during which they "blinded" Israel, crippling its early warning attack system, launched over 5000 rockets, and breached the Israeli border using paragliders.
South Korean military analysts have examined videos featuring armed HAMAS militants and identified weaponry that is exclusively produced in North Korea. This includes fragmentation and high-explosive rounds for the F-7 grenade launcher, a North Korean version of the Soviet RPG-7, as well as 122mm artillery shells labeled "Bang-122," which the North Korean military has used for artillery attacks in the South.
According to South Korean military personnel, this highly likely suggests that North Korea continues to export various weapons to militants in Middle Eastern countries, even though Pyongyang denies such allegations, dismissing them as baseless and false rumors.
Sources also note that during the attack, HAMAS militants employed unconventional means of infiltrating Israeli territory, such as paragliders and drones, which North Korea has used in the past to infiltrate South Korean territory. Seoul's military does not rule out the possibility that North Korea may have passed on its experience in using such tactics to HAMAS.
Furthermore, in December 2016, the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, personally participated in a presentation featuring paragliders capable of reaching the residence of the South Korean president near Seoul.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff stated that they continue to analyze the conflict in the Middle East to identify distinctive signs of North Korean involvement in its preparation and to bolster South Korea's defensive capabilities.
