Iron dome, Israel, Hamas, Hezbollah, North Korea, arms deal, rockets, missiles
Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets launched from the Gaza Strip, as seen from the city of Ashkelon, Israel, on Oct. 9. Reuters-Yonhap
Experts warn simple missiles, if fired in large numbers, can make superior enemy vulnerableBy Kang Hyun-kyungSouth Korea should take heed of Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas, an Islamic militant group controlling the Gaza Strip, as the recent incursion illustrates the potential risks posed by North Korea, experts said.
They pointed out that simple and cheaper weapons, if used in a huge barrage like the recent raining down of rockets fired by Hamas, can be destructive enough to make an enemy armed with state-of-the-art defense systems vulnerable.
“If the Iron Dome can’t stop all of the rockets from Hamas, how is South Korea supposed to stop all the rockets from North Korea in an attack?” Bruce Bechtol Jr., a former officer of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, said during a phone interview with The Korea Times on Wednesday. “I think that’s the question South Koreans need to start asking themselves because North Korea has much more effective rockets than Hamas.”
The Israel-Hamas conflict has killed over 2,000 people since a barrage of rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip by Hamas on Saturday.
According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), some 4,500 rockets have been fired at Israeli territory by Hamas, backed by Iran since Saturday’s attack.
The huge barrage of rockets launched by Hamas initially overwhelmed Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system, which was designed to track and intercept inbound missiles.
After the initial struggles, however, the Iron Dome batteries successfully prevented short-range rockets from hitting Israelis.
The conflict in the Middle East has drawn attention from South Korea’s defense authorities because some of the weapons Hamas used are believed to have originated from North Korea.
“It looks like some of those rockets or at least some of those launchers were supplied to Hamas by the North Koreans back in 2014,” said Bechtol Jr.
He was referring to the report in 2014 by British newspaper The Telegraph that North Korea and Hamas signed a secret arms deal worth several hundred thousand dollars to sell rockets and communication equipment.
“These are not sophisticated systems that Hamas were shooting at Israelis. These are simple: 107 mm, 122 mm Katsuya rockets. These are the same kind of rockets that the North Koreans have,” Bechtol Jr. said.
He encouraged South Korea to invest in more sophisticated counter-battery fire capabilities, stressing North Korea has many rockets all over the Demilitarized Zone.
Bechtol Jr., a professor of political science at Angelo State University in Texas, warned that Israel could face another challenge if Hamas is going to launch its anti-tank system, which it reportedly purchased from North Korea.
“Troubling to me are the reports that North Korea has also sold ‘Bulsae’ anti-tank systems to Hamas, and that they have assisted Hamas with the tunnels they built under the border into Israel,” he said.
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NK 'on pace' to field enough nuclear-tipped ICBMs to break US missile defense: congressional report 2023-10-13 11:13 | North Korea The Bulsae-2 is an anti-tank-guided missile developed by North Korea. It is a variant of the Soviet Union’s Fagot. Since the late 1970s, the Soviet Union provided its Fagot anti-tank-guided weapons to North Korea and even helped the North to set up local production of these weapons.
Bruce Bechtol Jr., a professor of political science at Angelo State University in Texas / Courtesy of Bruce Bechtol Jr.
“The problem with this is a lot of those tanks Israelis have are very susceptible to the Bulsae system. South Korean tanks are susceptible to Bulsae, too. It’s something to think about,” he said.
Following Hamas’s massive rocket attacks, Hezbollah, another Islamic militant group based in southern Lebanon, congratulated Hamas for the massive rocket attacks, and fired rockets at the Israeli border area. Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, exchanged fire with respective rockets. Analysts say Hezbollah’s rocket launches are a symbolic move to show the armed group’s support for Hamas, rather than a precursor to serious military action against Israel.
North Korea’s arms exports and training of Hamas and Hezbollah militants have emerged as a fresh headache for South Korea.
This could steer the U.S. government’s foreign policy focus back on the Middle East from the Indo-Pacific region.
If this happens, South Korea will face challenges in defending itself from North Korea.
Hong Sung-pyo, a senior research analyst at the Korea Institute for Military Affairs, said Seoul needs to closely watch North Korea’s military ties with Hamas and Hezbollah as they could have significant implications for South Korea’s security.
“North Korea is under layered sanctions from the United Nations, the U.S. and the European Union. Considering this, it is no surprise that the North is trying to work with illicit groups like Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations to export their weapons,” he said.
Through cooperation with these armed groups, Hong said North Korea earns cash and tries to team up with them to foster partnerships against their common adversaries, such as the United States.
Hamas and Hezbollah have decades-old ties with North Korea.
North Korea secretly exported its weapons to Hamas and Hezbollah which are designated by the U.S. as terrorist organizations, and helped the armed groups dig underground tunnels to launch surprise attacks on Israeli citizens living in the border area. The North also trained the Islamic militants to enhance their wartime skills during the Cold War period.
North Korea’s covert arms deals with Hamas were confirmed in 2009 when 35 tons of weapons, including surface-to-surface missiles and rocket-propelled grenades, were seized after a cargo plane carrying the weapons was forced to land at Bangkok airport. It was later confirmed that those weapons were scheduled to be smuggled to Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon via Iran.
In 2014, the Israeli Army uncovered a network of underground tunnels stretching from the Gaza Strip to Israeli territory during its aerial operation against Hamas and other militant groups in the Gaza Strip.
The IDF calls the network the “metro” as it is as huge as an underground city, comprising dozens of access points from the Gaza Strip. The tunnels were used as weapons caches, bunkers and command centers, according to the IDF.
According to the Alma Research and Education Center of Israel, North Korea, in collaboration with Iran, also helped Hezbollah build a host of inter-regional tunnels in Lebanon after the Second Lebanon War in 2006. The think tank said that Hezbollah’s tunnel network is even larger than that of Hamas.
“Hezbollah’s model is the same as the North Korean model: Tunnels in which hundreds of combatants, fully equipped, can pass stealthily and rapidly underground,” it said in a 2021 report.
This image, captured from a video shared on the X account War Noir, shows a Hamas fighter holding an F-7 high-explosive fragmentation rocket originally produced in North Korea.
North Korea has also trained Islamic militants, according to experts.
“Between 1968 and 1988, North Korea built and operated at least 30 special training camps within its borders, specializing in terrorist and guerilla warfare training. Reports at the time indicated that over 5,000 recruits from some 25 nations visited these camps to take part in various courses lasting anywhere from three to 18 months,” Bethol Jr. said.
North Korea trained Palestinian terrorists, both those belonging to the Palestine Liberation Organization and from Syrian and Libyan-backed groups, up until the late 1980s, according to Barry Rubin, author of “North Korea’s Threats to the Middle East and the Middle East’s Threats to Asia.”