III. Resilient Customers

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Notes

1 Alexandre Mansourov, ‘North Korea: Entering Syria's Civil War’, 38 North, 25 November 2013, <http://38north.org/2013/11/amansourov112513/>, accessed 20 October 2015.

2 Ibid.

3 Joseph S Bermudez, Jr, ‘North Korea's Chemical Warfare Capabilities', 38 North, 10 October 2013, <http://38north.org/2013/10/jbermudez101013/>, accessed 20 October 2015.

4 Director of Central Intelligence, National Intelligence Estimate, ‘Prospects for Special Weapons Proliferation and Control’, NIE 5-91C, Volume II: Annex A (Country Studies), July 1991, p. 6.

5 Risk Report, ‘Syria Missile Milestones: 1972–2005’ (Vol. 11, No. 5, September/October 2005), <http://www.wisconsinproject.org/countries/syria/syria-missile-miles.html>, accessed 27 November 2015.

6 Risk Report, ‘Syria Missile Development – 1997’, Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control (Vol. 3, No. 2, March-April 1997), <http://www.wisconsinproject.org/countries/syria/missiles.html>, accessed 20 October 2015.

7 Joseph S Bermudez, Jr, ‘A History of Ballistic Missile Development in the DPRK’, Center for Nonproliferation Studies Occasional Paper No. 2, 1999, p. 18.

8 George Lardner, Jr, ‘Probe Ordered in Failure to Track N. Korean Ship’, Washington Post, 14 March 1992. See also Douglas Waller, ‘Sneaking in the Scuds’, Newsweek, 22 June 1992, pp. 42–46.

9 The Central Intelligence Agency provided a video briefing to Congress in 2008, reproduced by the BBC. BBC News, ‘Syria Had Covert Nuclear Scheme’, 25 April 2008. See also Peter Crail, ‘U.S. Shares Information on NK-Syrian Nuclear Ties’, Arms Control Today (Vol. 38, No. 4, May 2008).

10 Paul Eckert, ‘Specter of North Korea Lurks in U.S. Debate on Syria's Chemical Weapons', Reuters, 15 September 2013.

11 Bermudez, Jr, ‘North Korea's Chemical Warfare Capabilities'.

12 UN Security Council, ‘Report of the Panel of Experts Submitted Pursuant to Resolution 1874 (2009)’, S/2010/571, 5 November 2010, pp. 25–26. See also ‘DPRK: Sanctions Committee Presses on 1874 Implementation’, Cable #10USUNNEWYORK36, 22 January 2010, accessed via Wikileaks on 12 May 2014.

13 UN Security Council, ‘Report of the Panel of Experts Submitted Pursuant to Resolution 1874 (2009)’, S/2010/571.

14 UN Security Council, ‘Report of the Panel of Experts Submitted Pursuant to Resolution 1874 (2009)’, S/2012/422, 14 June 2012, pp. 27–28.

15 Ibid.

16 ‘Greece Confirms Missile Parts Included in Suspect Shipment’, Cable #07ATHENS2345, 12 December 2012, accessed via Wikileaks on 27 May 2014.

17 UN Security Council, ‘Report of the Panel of Experts Submitted Pursuant to Resolution 1874 (2009)’, S/2012/422, pp. 24–25.

18 ‘Shipment of North Korean Parts with Missile Applications from China to Syria’, Cable #08STATE44906, 29 April 2008, accessed via Wikileaks on 27 May 2014.

19 ‘Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR): North Korea's Missile Program’, Cable #09STATE103755, accessed via Wikileaks on 27 May 2014.

20 UN Security Council, ‘Report of the Panel of Experts Submitted Pursuant to Resolution 2050 (2012)’, S/2013/337, 11 June 2013.

21 ‘Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR): North Korea's Missile Program', Cable #09STATE103755.

22 Robin Hughes, ‘SSRC: Spectre at the Table’, Jane's Defence Weekly, 22 January 2014. Tangun Trading Corporation is an entity subordinate to the Second Academy of National Sciences, which is primarily responsible for procuring commodities for North Korea's own defence development programmes. This demonstrates the involvement of select procurement-focused entities in the country's defence-export activity.

23 As will be shown later in the chapter, some North Korean material seems to have found its way into Hizbullah's hands, and Syrian complicity in its procurement is plausible.

24 Suadad Al-Salhy, ‘Iraq Blocks Syria-Bound North Korean Plane, Suspects Weapons Cargo’, Reuters, 21 September 2012.

25 Barbara Demick, ‘North Korea Tried to Ship Gas Masks to Syria, Report Says', LA Times, 27 August 2013.

26 Jerusalem Post, ‘Behind the Lines: Assad's North Korean Connection’, 11 February 2013.

27 The author is particularly grateful to Caroline Cottet for her assistance in completing this data. NK Leadership Watch, ‘DPRK Foreign Minister Meets with Bashar Al-Assad’, 19 June 2014, <https://nkleadershipwatch.wordpress.com/2014/06/19/dprk-foreign-minister-meets-with-bashar-al-assad/>, accessed 20 October 2015. See also Syrian Arab News Agency, ‘President Al-Assad Receives a Delegation from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Headed by DPRK Foreign Trade Minister Ri Ryong Nam’, 29 May 2014, <http://www.sana.sy/en/?p=18497>, accessed 20 October 2015.

28 ‘TELEGRAM 075.345 from the Romanian Embassy in Tehran to the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs', 24 May 1978, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, AMAE, Folder 784/1978, 7 January 1978 – 23 September 1978. Obtained and translated for NKIDP by Eliza Gheorghe; available at <http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/116429>, accessed 20 October 2015.

29 US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, ‘World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers', 1989.

30 Charles K Armstrong, Tyranny of the Weak: North Korea and the World, 1950–1992 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2013), pp. 185–86.

31 Original figure provided was $1 billion. Adjusted for inflation from the publication date of the World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers report in June 1989. See US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, ‘World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers 1988’, ACDA Publication 131, June 1989, <http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/185653.pdf>, accessed 20 October 2015.

32 Andrea Matles Savada (ed.), North Korea: A Country Study (Washington, DC: GPO for Library of Congress, 1994), chapter on ‘Relations with the Third World’. Data in the study are drawn from the annual ‘World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers' reports that were produced by the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency during the 1980s. The agency was merged into the Department of State in 1999. US Defense Intelligence Agency, ‘North Korea: The Foundations for Military Strength’, October 1991, available at <https://www.fas.org/irp/dia/product/knfms/knfms_toc.html>, accessed 20 October 2015.

33 Andrea Berger, ‘North Korea, Hamas, and Hezbollah: Arm in Arm?’, 38 North, 5 August 2014, < http://38north.org/2014/08/aberger080514/>, accessed 20 October 2015.

34 Savada (ed.), North Korea, chapter on ‘Relations with the Third World’.

35 Iran purchased MiG-29s from the Soviet Union shortly after the Iran–Iraq War ended, and kept in service a number of captured Iraqi MiG aircraft that had flown into Iranian airspace during the Gulf War of 1991. Much later, in 2000, Tehran contracted to Moscow to undertake a comprehensive programme of repairs of the aircraft it had previously sold. See Alla Kassianova, ‘Russian Weapon Sales to Iran’, PONARS Policy Memo No. 427, pp. 2–3, available at <http://csis.org/files/media/csis/pubs/pm_0427.pdf>, accessed 20 October 2015.

36 Statement of Choi Ju-hwal, ‘North Korean Missile Proliferation: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on International Security, Proliferation, and Federal Services of the Committee on Governmental Affairs’, US Senate, First Session, 105^th Congress, 21 October 1997.

37 Bermudez, Jr, ‘A History of Ballistic Missile Development in the DPRK’, pp. 21–25.

38 North Korean defectors with knowledge of the two countries’ joint missile-development efforts noted that US surveillance and interdiction activity began to pose difficulties for facilitating technology transfer. In order to evade detection when delivering contracted missile-related goods to Iran and Syria, the DPRK began to send components rather than complete systems, and often split cargo between maritime and air transport. In addition, it routed shipments through off-track destinations such as Pointe-Noire in the Republic of the Congo. See ‘North Korean Missile Proliferation: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on International Security, Proliferation, and Federal Services of the Committee on Governmental Affairs’, US Senate, First Session, 105^th Congress, 21 October 1997.

39 ‘Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR): Iran's Ballistic Missile Program’, cable #08STATE105103, 1 October 2008, accessed via Wikileaks on 27 May 2014.

40 Office of Naval Intelligence, ‘Iran's Naval Forces: From Guerrilla Warfare to a Modern Naval Strategy’, 2009, p. 20.

41 Chosun Ilbo, ‘Seoul Rebuts NK Denials in Cheonan Sinking’, 31 May 2010, <http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/05/31/2010053101481.html>, accessed 20 October 2015.

42 Joshua Pollack, ‘Ballistic Trajectory: The Evolution of North Korea's Ballistic Missile Market’, Nonproliferation Review (Vol. 18, No. 2, July 2011), p. 415. See also Office of the Director of National Intelligence, ‘Unclassified Report to Congress on the Acquisition of Technology Relating to Weapons of Mass Destruction and Advanced Conventional Munitions, Covering 1 January to 31 December 2009’, 2010, p. 7.

43 Risk Report, ‘North Korean Missile Exports’, Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control (Vol. 2, No. 6, November/December 1996), <http://www.wisconsinproject.org/countries/nkorea/north-korea-missile-exports.html>, accessed 20 October 2015.

44 US Department of Treasury, ‘Treasury Imposes Sanctions against the Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea’, 2 January 2015, <http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/jl9733.aspx>, accessed 20 October 2015.

45 Ibid.

46 ‘PRC Informed of DPRK-To-Iran Flight of Proliferation Concern’, Cable #08BEIJING3047, 7 August 2008, accessed via Wikileaks on 27 May 2014. Note that in May 2012, the Security Council also designated the Amroggang Development Banking Corporation for its assistance to Iran's ballistic-missile programme. Though the timeframe for this assistance is not clear, this formal designation means that the members of the Sanctions Committee felt there was compelling evidence of Amroggang's involvement in proscribed activities after the introduction of Resolution 1718 (2006). See UN, ‘Security Council Committee Determines Entities, Goods Subject to Measures Imposed on Democratic People's Republic of Korea by Resolution 1718 (2006)’, SC/10633, press release, 2 May 2012, <http://www.un.org/press/en/2012/sc10633.doc.htm>, accessed 20 October 2015.

47 ‘Post Raises Ongoing Missile Proliferation Matter with MFA’, Cable #07BEIJING7063, 9 November 2007, accessed via Wikileaks on 27 May 2014.

48 Peter Crail, ‘Iran Lauds Development of Solid Fuel Missile’, Arms Control Today (Vol. 38, No. 1, January/February 2008).

49 Iran Watch, ‘Iran-Bound Rocket Fuel Component Seized in Singapore’, 1 September 2010, <http://www.iranwatch.org/our-publications/enforcement-news-summary/iran-bound-rocket-fuel-component-seized-singapore>, accessed 20 October 2015.

50 ‘Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR): Iran's Ballistic Missile Program’, Cable #08STATE105103.

51 Jane's Defence Weekly, ‘North Korea Tests Short-Range Missile’, 30 May 2007.

52 Jane's Defence Weekly, ‘North Korea tests Anti-Ship Cruise Missiles’, 28 February 2003.

53 Time, ‘Is North Korea Peddling Nuclear Weapons?’, 7 July 2003.

54 ‘PSI: North Korean Vessel of Possible Proliferation Concerns', Cable #08STATE12403222, November 2008, accessed via Wikileaks on 27 May 2014.

55 Siegfried S Hecker and William Liou, ‘Dangerous Dealings: North Korea's Nuclear Capabilities and the Threat of Export to Iran’, Arms Control Today, March 2007. See also Kyodo News, ‘N. Korea Conducts Nuke Test in Presence of Iranian Scientists: Source’, 15 February 2013.

56 Yeganeh Torbati, ‘Iran, North Korea Agree to Cooperate in Science, Technology’, Reuters, 1 September 2012.

57 Jay Solomon, ‘Iran, North Korea Pact Draws Concern’, Wall Street Journal, 8 March 2013.

58 Ibid.

59 It was only under UN Security Council Resolution 1874 (2009) that states became obliged to report any searches and seizures pertaining to the UN sanctions regime against the DPRK. As a result, this particular incident was not reported until sometime after its occurrence. For further information on the cargo discovered in this incident, see UN Security Council, ‘Report of the Panel of Experts Submitted Pursuant to Resolution 1874 (2009)’, S/2013/337, p. 31.

60 ‘DPRK: UAE Reports Sanctions Violation to 1718 Committee’, Cable #09USUNNEWYORK775, 17 August 2009, accessed via Wikileaks on 24 May 2014.

61 UN Security Council, ‘Report of the Panel of Experts Submitted Pursuant to Resolution 1874 (2009)’, S/2013/337, pp. 31–34.

62 Yoko Kubota, ‘Israel Says Seized North Korean Arms Were for Hamas, Hezbollah’, Reuters, 12 May 2010.

63 White House Office of the Press Secretary, ‘Press Gaggle by Press Secretary Jay Carney and Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes’, 17 November 2012, <http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/11/17/press-gaggle-press-secretary-jay-carney-and-deputy-national-security-adv>, accessed 20 October 2015.

64 Simon Kerr, ‘N Korea Arms for Tehran Seized, Says UAE’, Financial Times, 29 August 2009.

65 Germany listed the entity as a proliferation concern before the incident with the ANL Australia, while Canada, Japan and the UK did so after the event. Iran Watch, ‘Iranian Entities: T.S.S Co’, 13 July 2011, <http://www.iranwatch.org/iranian-entities/tss-co>, accessed 20 October 2015.

66 Author conversation with Balázs Szalontai, April 2014.

67 UN Security Council Resolution 2231 (2015), S/RES/2231, p. 99.

68 Ibid., p. 100.

69 East African, ‘Museveni Praises North Korea Security Training’, 17 April 2014, <http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/Uganda-President-Museveni-praises-North-Korea-security-training/-/2558/2283098/-/f7p3ue/-/index.html>, accessed 20 October 2015.

70 US Defense Intelligence Agency, ‘North Korea’.

71 Rita M Byrnes (ed.), Uganda: A Country Study (Washington, DC: GPO for Library of Congress, 1992).

72 Ibid.

73 Christopher W Hughes, Japan's Economic Power and Security: Japan and North Korea (London: Routledge, 1999), p. 144.

74 Steven Candia, ‘North Korea to Solve Police Housing Crisis’, New Vision, 12 June 2013, <http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/643881-north-korea-to-solve-police-housing-crisis.html>, accessed 20 October 2015.

75 IRIN News, ‘Uganda: Kampala Reportedly Increasing Arms Manufacturing Capability’, 30 March 1999, <http://www.irinnews.org/report/5863/uganda-kampala-reportedly-increasing-arms-manufacturing-capacity>, accessed 20 October 2015.

76 Ibid.

77 ‘Audition de M. Georges Berghezan, chargé de recherche au Grip pour l'Afrique et les transports d'armes’, Sénat de Belgique, Session ordinaire 2001-2002, Commission d'enquête parlementaire «Grands Lacs», 5 July 2002, <http://www.senate.be/crv/GR/gr-35.html>, accessed 20 October 2015.

78 North Koreans were apparently permitted to settle between Nakasongola Barracks and Lwampanga.

79 Records obtained by the author, the details of which have been withheld to ensure anonymity.

80 ‘2008 Security Environment Profile Questionnaire (SEPQ), Kampala’, Cable #09KAMPALA272_a, 12 March 2009, accessed via Wikileaks on 27 December 2014.

81 ‘Chinese Engagement in Uganda’, Cable #10KAMPALA77, 17 February 2010, accessed via Wikileaks on 14 May 2014.

82 Times Live, ‘Top North Korean Leader in Uganda to Boost Security Ties’, 29 October 2014, <http://www.timeslive.co.za/africa/2014/10/29/top-north-korean-leader-in-uganda-to-boost-security-ties>, accessed 22 October 2015.

83 Sulaiman Kakaire, ‘New Army Big Wigs: Who Are They?’, Observer, 29 May 2013, <http://observer.ug/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=25566:-new-army-big-wigs-who-are-they>, accessed 22 October 2015.

84 UN Security Council, ‘Report of the Panel of Experts Established Pursuant to Resolution 1874 (2009)’, S/2014/147, 6 March 2014, p. 37.

85 UN Security Council, ‘Report of the Panel of Experts Established Pursuant to Resolution 1874 (2009)’, S/2015/131, 23 February 2015, p. 38. Full details of the training are available on pp. 100–01.

86 Ibid., p. 39.

87 Jeffrey Gettleman, ‘Ripples of Dispute Surround Tiny Island in East Africa’, New York Times, 16 August 2009.

88 UN Security Council, ‘Report of the Panel of Experts Established Pursuant to Resolution 1874 (2009)’, S/2015/131, pp. 100–01. See also Barbara Among, ‘Uganda, Tanzania in Trouble with UN over “Arms Deals”’ with North Korea’, East African, 12 April 2014, <http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/Uganda--Tanzania-on-UN-radar-over-North-Korea-links-/-/2558/2277334/-/w54donz/-/index.html>, accessed 22 October 2015; Barbara Among, ‘North Korea Training 400 Police Officers’, Africa Intelligence (No. 1402, 1 May 2015), <http://www.africaintelligence.com/ION/politics-power/2015/05/01/north-korea-training-400%C2%A0police-officers,108071813-BRE>, accessed 22 October 2015.

89 Candia, ‘North Korea to Solve Police Housing Crisis’.

90 Among, ‘Uganda, Tanzania in Trouble with UN over “Arms Deals”’ with North Korea’.

91 Some scholars and researchers also believe that Korean People's Army (KPA) soldiers visiting Zaire as part of a North Korean delegation in 1967 clashed with mercenaries who were attempting to overthrow Mobutu. See David Axe, Shadow Wars: Chasing Conflict in an Era of Peace (Dulles, VA: Potomac Books, 2013), p. 7.

92 Thomas P Odom, ‘Shaba II: The French and Belgian Intervention in Zaire in 1978’, Combat Studies Institute, April 1993.

93 Sandra W Meditz and Tim Merrill (eds), Zaire: A Country Study (Washington, DC: GPO for Library of Congress, 1994). See in particular the section on ‘Relations with the Communist World’.

94 Tom Cooper, Great Lakes Conflagration: Second Congo War, 1998­­–2003 (London: Helion and Company, 2013) p. 7.

95 ‘Case Concerning Armed Activities on the Territory of the Congo’, Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Uganda, International Court of Justice, Judgment of 19 December 2005, p. 192.

96 Cooper, Great Lakes Conflagration, p. 54.

97 Ghislaine Dupon, ‘Combats signalés au sud. On annonce l'arrivée de troupes nord-coréennes’, Radio France Internationale, Paris, radio broadcast in French at 1230 GMT, 29 June 1999.

98 ICG Rapport Afrique No. 26, ‘Le partage du Congo : Anatomie d'une sale guerre’, 20 December 2000, p. 52.

99 Africa Confidential, ‘War Economy’ (Vol. 42, No. 9, 4 May 2001).

100 Letter dated 21 June 2012 from the chair of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1533 (2004) concerning the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) addressed to the President of the UN Security Council, S/2012/348, p. 34.

101 ‘Groups of Experts’ perform the same function within the UN system as ‘Panels of Experts’ and ‘Monitoring Groups’.

102 UN Security Council, ‘Report of the Group of Experts Submitted Pursuant to Resolution 1533 (2004)’, S/2004/551, 15 July 2004, p. 87.

103 Andrea Berger, ‘What Lies Beneath: North Korea's Uranium Deposits’, NK News, 28 August 2014, <http://www.nknews.org/2014/08/what-lies-beneath-north-koreas-uranium-deposits/>, accessed 22 October 2015.

104 ‘Recent Allegations of Uranium Trafficking in the Democratic Republic of Congo’, Cable #07KINSHASA797, 11 July 2007, accessed via Wikileaks on 14 May 2014. See also ‘MONUC Fears Uranium Smuggling in Congo’, Cable #04KINSHASA1492, 8 September 2004, accessed via Wikileaks on 19 August 2014; ‘DRC Visit to China, N. Korea – Hydroelectricity and Roof Tiles Major Prospects’, Cable #04KINSHASA2122, 19 November 2004, accessed via Wikileaks on 27 May 2014.

105 ‘Final Report of the Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo’, S/2009/603, 23 November 2009, pp. 61­–62.

106 Ibid.

107 ‘Possible North Korean Shipment of Proliferation Concern’, Cable #09STATE4103_a, 15 January 2009, accessed via Wikileaks on 14 May 2014.

108 Institute for International Strategic Studies, The Military Balance 2009 (Routledge: London, 2009), pp. 297–98.

109 For more information, see Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), ‘UN Arms Embargo against the DRC (Non-Governmental Forces’, 12 June 2015, <http://www.sipri.org/databases/embargoes/un_arms_embargoes/drc>, accessed 22 October 2015.

110 Jeffrey Lewis and Catherine Dill, ‘Myanmar's Unrepentant Arms Czar’, Foreign Policy, 9 May 2014.

111 Andrew Selth, ‘Burma's Armed Forces: Looking Down the Barrel’, Griffith Asia Institute, Regional Outlook Paper No. 21, 2009, <http://www.griffith.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/148350/Selth-Regional-Outlook-Paper-21.pdf>, accessed 22 October 2015. See p. 11 for an overview of the various expansion estimates, most of which arrive at the conclusion that the Burmese armed forces doubled in size after 1988.

112 ‘Burma Official Confirms Burma-DPRK “Peaceful” Nuclear Cooperation’, Cable #09RANGOON502, 7 August 2009, accessed via Wikileaks on 14 May 2014.

113 Andrew T H Tan (ed.), The Global Arms Trade: A Handbook (Abingdon: Routledge, 2014), pp. 23–24. Supplemented by information from the SIPRI Arms Transfer Database.

114 Bertil Lintner, ‘Burma's WMD Programme and Military Cooperation between Burma and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea’, March 2012, <http://issuu.com/asia_pacific_media_services/docs/burma-dark-post>, accessed 22 October 2015.

115 Bruce Hawke, ‘Rice Buys Artillery for Myanmar’, Jane's Defence Weekly, 5 August 1998, p. 8.

116 ‘Burma Buys AK-47 Rounds’, Jane's Defence Weekly, 2 February 1991, p. 139.

117 Hawke, ‘Rice Buys Artillery for Myanmar’.

118 The Burmese military may have also explored the possibility of purchasing one or two small submarines from North Korea in 2002, but there are no grounds to conclude that the sale took place. See Andrew Selth, ‘Burma's North Korean Gambit: A Challenge to Regional Security?’, Strategic and Defence Studies Paper, Canberra Papers on Strategy and Defence No. 154, Australian National University, 2004, p. 4.

119 ‘Developments in Burma’, testimony by Matthew P Daley before the House International Relations Committee, Washington, DC, 25 March 2004, available from <http://2001-2009.state.gov/p/eap/rls/rm/2004/30789.htm>, accessed 22 October 2015.

120 Ibid.

121 Bertil Lintner and Shawn W Crispin, ‘Dangerous Bedfellows’, Far Eastern Economic Review, 20 November 2003.

122 A 2012 report by the US Department of Defense cites Burma as one ‘client for North Korea's ballistic missiles’, amongst others. See Department of Defense, ‘Military and Security Developments Involving the Democratic People's Republic of Korea: A Report to Congress Pursuant to the National Defence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012’, 5 February 2013, p. 16. See Robert E Kelley and Ali Fowle, ‘Nuclear Related Activities in Burma’, published for the Democratic Voice of Burma, 25 May 2010, available at <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/documents/060410.pdf>, accessed 22 October 2015. See also Geoffrey Forden's analysis of photographs released by the Democratic Voice of Burma, showing facilities and materials belonging to the Burmese military's indigenous ballistic-missile programme. Geoffrey Forden, ‘Now It Can Be Told: Inside BOB’, Arms Control Wonk, 3 June 2010.

123 The Burmese government publicly announced its plans to acquire a research reactor in 2002. In 2007, it signed an agreement with Russia for the supply of a 10-MWe light-water research reactor. That project was suspended in 2010 ‘due to inadequacy of resources and the government's concern for misunderstanding it may cause’ in the international community. For more information see US Department of State, ‘Adherence to and Compliance with Arms Control, Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Agreements and Commitments’, July 2014, pp. 21–23, <http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/230108.pdf>, accessed 22 October 2015.

124 See, for example, Robert Kelley, ‘Expert Says Burma Planning Nuclear Bomb’, Democratic Voice of Burma, 3 June 2010, <https://www.dvb.no/news/expert-says-burma-%E2%80%98planning-nuclear-bomb%E2%80%99/9527>, accessed 22 October 2015. For a more comprehensive collection of sources alleging a North Korea–Burma nuclear link, see ‘A Sourcebook on Allegations of Cooperation between Myanmar (Burma) and North Korea on Nuclear Projects’, reproduced by the Federation of American Scientists, 22 September 2014, <http://www.fas.org/man/eprint/burma.pdf>, accessed 22 October 2015.

125 ‘GOS Releases Precision Lathes to Shipper’, Cable #07SINGAPORE224, 31 January 2007, accessed via Wikileaks on 27 May 2014.

126 CNBC, ‘N Korea Exporting Multiple-Launch Rockets to Myanmar – Report’, 2 April 2008.

127 ‘Burma: Visit of DPRK Vice Foreign Minister’, Cable #08RANGOON90, 19 November 2008, accessed via Wikileaks on 27 May 2014.

128 Ibid.

129 ‘Report of Shwe Mann's Visit to North Korea’, translated by Pascal Khu Thwe for the Democratic Voice of Burma, 2 June 2010, <www.dvb.no/burmas-nuclear-ambitions/burmas-nuclear-ambitions-military-docs/military-docs/9279>, accessed 20 October 2015.

130 See, for example, ‘O'Connor on the BOB’, Arms Control Wonk, 5 August 2009, <http://lewis.armscontrolwonk.com/archive/2412/oconnor-on-the-bob>, accessed 22 October 2015.

131 Bertil Lintner, ‘Myanmar and North Korea Share a Tunnel Vision’, Asia Times, 19 July 2006, <http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/HG19Ae01.html>, accessed 22 October 2015.

132 Andreas Persbo, ‘The Box in Burma: Preliminary Analysis’, Arms Control Verification Blog, 13 August 2009, <http://www.armscontrolverification.org/2009/08/box-in-burma-preliminary-analysis.html>, accessed 22 October 2015.

133 The Tanchon Commercial Bank is a subordinate of Korea Ryonbong General Corporation, which is suspected of having been involved in Ethiopian arms factories, as discussed in Chapter IV.

134 ‘E.O. 13382 Designation of Kwangson Banking Corporation’, Cable #09STATE84276, 13 August 2009, accessed via Wikileaks on 27 May 2014.

135 ‘Follow-Up on Attempts by North Korea's KOMID to Evade Japanese Export Controls’, Cable #08STATE126248, 1 December 2008, accessed via Wikileaks on 27 May 2014.

136 Catherine Boye, Melissa Hanham and Robert Shaw, ‘North Korea and Myanmar: A Match for Nuclear Proliferation?’, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 27 September 2010, <http://thebulletin.org/north-korea-and-myanmar-match-nuclear-proliferation>, accessed 22 October 2015.

137 Z News India, ‘Tokyo Trader Charged with Selling Sensitive Machine to Myanmar’, 24 July 2009.

138 ‘Final Report of the Panel of Experts Submitted Pursuant to Resolution 1874 (2009)’, S/2010/571, 5 November 2010, p. 24.

139 Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans, ‘North Korea Kh-35 Anti-Ship Missiles Shed Light on a Modernizing Navy’, Oryx Blog, 12 June 2014, <http://spioenkop.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/north-korean-kh-35-anti-ship-missiles.html>, accessed 22 October 2015.

140 ‘Report of the Panel of Experts Submitted Pursuant to Resolution 1874 (2009)’, S/2012/422, p. 23.

141 Yoshiro Makino, ‘Japan Intercepts N. Korea Weapons-Grade Material Bound for Myanmar’, Asahi Shimbun, 24 November 2012.

142 Federal Register, ‘Designation of Two Entities Pursuant to Executive Orders’, (Vol. 77, No. 196, October 2012), <http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-10-10/html/2012-24181.htm>, accessed 22 October 2015.

143 Makino, ‘Japan Intercepts N. Korea Weapons-Grade Material Bound for Myanmar’.

144 US Department of the Treasury, ‘Treasury Designates Burmese LT. General Thein Htay, Chief of Directorate of Defense Industries’, 2 July 2013, <http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/jl1998.aspx>, accessed 20 October 2015.

145 US Department of the Treasury, ‘Treasury Designates Burmese Companies and an Individual with Ties to the Directorate of Defense Industries’, 17 December 2013, <http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/jl2247.aspx>, accessed 20 October 2015.

146 Ibid.

147 US Department of the Treasury, ‘Treasury Sanctions Supporters of North Korea's Weapons of Mass Destruction and Illicit Finance Networks', 13 November 2015, <http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/jl0269.aspx>, accessed 13 November 2015.

148 ‘Report, Hungarian Embassy in Cuba to the Hungarian Foreign Ministry, 25 January 1968’, 25 January 1968, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, MOL, XIX-J-1-j Cuba, 1968, 59. doboz, 1, 001121/1968. Translated by Balázs Szalontai; available at <http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/116665>, accessed 22 October 2015.

149 ‘Memorandum of Conversation between Vice-Chairman Zhou Enlai, Party Secretary of the Cuban Popular Socialist Party Manuel Luzardo, and Member of National Directory Ernesto Che Guevara’, 21 November 1960, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Chinese Foreign Ministry Archive, No.204-00098-03, pp. 1–19. Translated for CWIHP by Zhang Qian; available at <http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/115154>, accessed 22 October 2015.

150 Cuba News, ‘Cuba-N. Korea Relationship More Complex than it Seems’, 1 March 2005.

151 ‘From a 2 June 1967 Memo of the Soviet Embassy in the DPRK (1st Secretary V. Nemchinov) about Some New Factors in Korean-Cuban Relations’, 2 June 1967, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, AVPRF f. 0102, op. 23, p. 112, d. 24, pp. 53–57. Obtained by Sergey Radchenko and translated by Gary Goldberg; available at <http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/116706>, accessed 22 October 2015.

152 Aidan Foster-Carter, ‘Cuba and North Korea: A Difficult Relationship’, Wall Street Journal, 17 July 2013.

153 See, for example, ‘Ivan Budinov, Minister of Foreign Trade, Report to Todor Zhivkov, Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Report on Granting a Credit to Cuba’, December 1962, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Bulgarian Central State Archive, Fond 1-B, Opis 64, a.e. 303, pp. 2–3. Translated by Greta Keremidchieva and edited by Jordan Baev. Obtained by the Bulgarian Cold War Research Group; available at <http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/116255>, accessed 22 October 2015.

154 Foreign Broadcast Information Service Daily Report (Asia), 12 March 1986, p. D10.

155 Patrick Oppmann, ‘Panama Says Cuban Weapons Shipment Violates U.N. Arms Embargo’, CNN, 29 August 2013.

156 United States Information Agency, Office of Research and Policy, Cuba Annual Report: 1986 (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1988), p. 81.

157 Michael Madden, ‘Gen. Kim Kyok Sik Visits Cuba’, NK Leadership Watch Blog, 30 June 2013, <https://nkleadershipwatch.wordpress.com/2013/06/30/gen-kim-kyok-sik-visits-cuba/>, accessed 22 October 2015.

158 Michael Madden, ‘Kim Jong Gak Meets with Cuban Military Delegation’, NK Leadership Watch Blog, 9 September 2012, <https://nkleadershipwatch.wordpress.com/2012/09/09/kim-jong-gak-meets-with-cuban-military-delegation/>, accessed 22 October 2015.

159 CCTV, ‘Raul Castro Meets with Kim Kyok-Sik in Havana’, 2 July 2013, <http://english.cntv.cn/program/newshour/20130702/104201.shtml>, accessed 22 October 2015.

160 Madden, ‘Gen. Kim Kyok Sik Visits Cuba’.

161 ‘Report of the Panel of Experts Established Pursuant to Resolution 1874 (2009)’, S/2014/147, Annex VII, p. 70.

162 Author interview with Interviewee E, 8 May 2014.

163 ‘Report of the Panel of Experts Established Pursuant to Resolution 1874 (2009)’, S/2014/147, p. 29.

164 Ibid.

165 These certificates provide essential information about an instrument's condition, and specifically any out-of-tolerance or special measurement conditions. They are often required by end users in a sale to ensure that the product has been tested prior to shipment.

166 Hugh Griffiths and Roope Siirtola, ‘Full Disclosure: Contents of North Korean Smuggling Ship Revealed’, 38 North, 27 August 2013, <http://38north.org/2013/08/hgriffiths082713/>, accessed 22 October 2015.

167 Author interview with Interviewee J, 29 April 2014. Corroborated by Interviewee E, in conversation with the author on 8 May 2014.

168 Melissa Hanham, ‘North Korea's Cuban Missile Crisis', 38 North, 1 August 2013, <http://38north.org/2013/08/mhanham080113/>, accessed 22 October 2015; see also Griffiths and Siirtola, ‘Full Disclosure’.

169 ‘Report of the Panel of Experts Established Pursuant to Resolution 1874 (2009)’, S/2014/147, p. 79.

170 Interviewee E agreed that this was likely the intention behind the shipment of miscellaneous items, during an interview with the author on 8 May 2014.

171 Oppmann, ‘Panama Says Cuban Weapons Shipment Violates U.N. Arms Embargo’.

172 CIA, ‘World Factbook: Cuba’, military section last updated 2013, <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/geos/cu.html>, accessed 22 October 2015.

173 Data sourced from the 2013 World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfer (WMEAT) Database, Table III.

174 A string of Chinese shipments of arms-related parts were reported in 2001. They were said to be part of a contract for maintenance and upgrade of Cuban weapons. See Washington Times, ‘China Secretly Shipping Cuba Arms', 12 June 2001. A Chinese vessel laden with similar parts, as well as ninety-nine ‘rockets', all produced by China's largest state-owned defence firm and bound for Cuba, was seized in Colombia in May 2015. See Miles Yu, ‘Colombians Catch Illegal Arms on Chinese Ship Bound for Cuba’, Washington Times, 5 March 2015.

175 Felicia Schwartz, ‘Cuba Officially Removed from U.S. State Sponsors of Terrorism List’, Washington Post, 29 May 2015.

176 WMEAT's statistical notes for 2013 indicate the problems with the sources and veracity of data for Cuba. The CIA World Factbook's collection of defence budget data does not contain information for Cuba; and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's Arms Transfer Database shows no transfers to Cuba after 1991.

177 Savada (ed.), North Korea, chapter on ‘Relations with the Third World’.

178 Benjamin R Young, ‘How North Korea Has Been Arming Palestinian Militants for Decades’, NK News, 25 June 2014, <http://www.nknews.org/2014/06/how-north-korea-has-been-arming-palestinian-militants-for-decades/>, accessed 20 October 2015.

179 Memorandum Opinion, Chaim Kaplan et al. v. Hezbollah et al., United Services District Court for the District of Columbia, 23 July 2014.

180 ‘Declaration of Professor Bruce Bechtol’, Chaim Kaplan et al. vs. Hezbollah et al., United Services District Court for the District of Columbia, 8 September 2011.

181 Mark E Manyin, ‘North Korea: Back on the Terrorism List?’, Congressional Research Service, Report 7-5700, 29 June 2010, <http://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL30613.pdf>, accessed 22 October 2015.

182 Emphasis added. ‘Fifth Semi-annual Report of the Secretary-General to the UN Security Council on the Implementation of Security Council Resolution 1559 (2004)’, S/2007/262, 7 May 2007, para. 28.

183 Human Rights Watch, ‘Civilians Under Assault: Hezbollah's Rocket Attacks on Israel in the 2006 War’, Vol. 19, No. 3, August 2007, pp. 29, 43, <http://www.hrw.org/reports/2007/iopt0807/iopt0807web.pdf>, accessed 22 October 2015.

184 Berger, ‘North Korea, Hamas, and Hezbollah’.

185 Kubota, ‘Israel Says Seized North Korean Arms Were for Hamas, Hezbollah’.

186 Con Coughlin, ‘Hamas and North Korea in Secret Arms Deal’, Daily Telegraph, 26 July 2014.

187 Berger, ‘North Korea, Hamas, and Hezbollah’.

188 Colleen Curry and Seni Tienabeso, ‘Israel Says Public Bus Was Target of Terror Attack’, ABC News, 4 August 2014.

189 Jeremy Binnie, ‘Analysis: Hamas Displays Long-Range Rockets', IHS Jane's Defence Weekly, 17 December 2014. See also Arms Control Wonk, ‘Oryx Blog on DPRK Arms Exports', 25 June 2014, <http://lewis.armscontrolwonk.com/archive/7370/oryx-blog-on-dprk-arms-exports>, accessed 22 October 2015.

190 Ibid.

191 Binnie, ‘Analysis: Hamas Displays Long-Range Rockets’,

192 Guardian, ‘US Sailors Hand Over Control of Captured Oil Tanker to Libyan Forces’, 22 March 2014.

193 BBC News, ‘North Korea Disowns Libya Oil Tanker’, 13 March 2014.

194 China produces single-barrelled rocket launchers.

195 Roger Davies, ‘Sea Tigers, Stealth Technology and the North Korean Connection’, Jane's Intelligence Review, March, 2001, available at <http://www.lankalibrary.com/pol/korea.htm>, accessed 20 October 2015.

196 Author e-mail conversation with Interviewee C, 23 January 2015.

197 ‘Sri Lanka: Procurement of Lethal Military Equipment From North Korea and Iran’, Cable #09COLOMBO516, 12 May 2009, accessed via Wikileaks on 27 May 2014.

198 Kubota Ruriko, ‘DPRK Plotted to Export Weapons to Terrorist Organ’, Sankei Shimbun, 26 September 2007.

199 ‘Request for Sharing of Intelligence on Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Motherships’, Cable #08COLOMBO601, 20 June 2008, accessed via Wikileaks on 27 May 2014.

200 ‘Defense Secretary Defends Sri Lankan Policies With A/S Blake’, Cable #09COLOMBO1159, 22 December 2009, accessed via Wikileaks on 27 May 2014. For more details on North Korean diversion of Chinese-origin goods, see also Small Arms Survey 2008: Risk and Resilience (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), p. 121.

201 See, for example, an article hosted by the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence website, which states that North Korea ordered weapons from ‘another major arms supplier’: Shamindra Fernando, ‘Tigers North Korean Link Bared?’, Sri Lanka Ministry of Defence, 30 December 2010, <http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20070305_07#>, accessed 22 October 2015.

202 Bill Gertz, ‘N. Korea Violating UN Sanctions with Angolan Military Aid’, Washington Free Beacon, 12 June 2015.

203 US Department of Treasury, ‘Treasury Imposes Sanctions against the Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea’.

204 See, for example, Syrian Arab News Agency, ‘Parliament Speaker: Syria and DPRK on Same Page against Common Adversaries’, 19 June 2014; Among, ‘Uganda, Tanzania in Trouble with UN over “Arms Deals”’ with North Korea’.