{"id":808,"date":"2017-09-19T21:25:07","date_gmt":"2017-09-19T21:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/?p=808"},"modified":"2017-09-20T14:42:01","modified_gmt":"2017-09-20T14:42:01","slug":"pakistan-helps-north-korea-develop-nuclear-weapons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/2017\/09\/19\/pakistan-helps-north-korea-develop-nuclear-weapons\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan helps North Korea develop Nuclear Weapons"},"content":{"rendered":"
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That Pakistan helped North Korea develop nuclear weapons is a theory that\u2019s been doing the rounds for years.<\/p>\n

In 2004, Pakistan\u2019s most famous nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, admitted to have transferred nuclear technology to North Korea and other nations, a confession that led to his detainment for five years. These unnerving revelations\u00a0were reinforced<\/a>\u00a0yet again earlier this month by another Pakistani nuclear scientist, Pervez Hoodbhoy.<\/p>\n

Now, as Pyongyang\u2019s belligerent missile tests continue, India, the US, and Japan seem to want to dig deeper into it.<\/p>\n

The signal came from a meeting between the foreign ministers of the three countries at New York\u2019s Palace Hotel early on Sept. 18, where North Korea\u2014or the Democratic People\u2019s Republic of Korea (DPRK)\u2014was among the issues discussed. \u201cOn DPRK, EAM (Indian external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj) deplored DPRK\u2019s recent actions and stated that its proliferation linkages must be explored and those involved be held accountable,\u201d the Indian foreign ministry said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The statement, of course, doesn\u2019t name Pakistan. When pressed on the matter at a briefing later in the day, the Indian foreign ministry spokesperson only said: \u201cI think I am giving you enough material (the statement) to figure out what we\u2019re talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reference to Pakistan was clear, in part, as there have been several revelations over the decades about the cooperation between the two nations. As Samuel Ramani, a PhD candidate at the University of Oxford,\u00a0wrote last year in The Diplomat<\/a>\u00a0magazine:<\/p>\n

Since the 1970s, Pakistan and North Korea have cooperated extensively on the development of ballistic missile and nuclear weapons technologies. Pakistan\u2019s strong alliance with China and the legacy of a major scandal linking the Pakistani military to North Korea\u2019s nuclear program have prevented Islamabad from joining UN efforts to diplomatically isolate the DPRK.<\/p>\n

While economic links between Pakistan and North Korea were established during the early 1970s, the foundations of the modern Islamabad-Pyongyang security partnership were forged during Pakistani prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto\u2019s 1976 visit to North Korea.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In particular, Khan\u2019s role in dealings with Pyongyang has been under scrutiny. In 2005,\u00a0TIME magazine said that<\/a>, according to intelligence officials, \u201cKhan sold North Korea much of the material needed to build a bomb, including high-speed centrifuges used to enrich uranium and the equipment required to manufacture more of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Whether Khan was acting alone is unclear, though, in his recent interview, Hoodbhoy was explicit. \u201cIt is very hard to believe that AQ Khan single-handedly transferred all technology from Pakistan to North Korea, Libya, and Iran, as it was a high-security installation in Pakistan and guarded with very fearsome amount of policing and military intelligence surrounding it,\u201d he\u00a0told Deutsche Welle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is something journalists Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark, too, brought forth in their book\u00a0Deception: Pakistan, the United States, and the Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons.<\/em>\u00a0\u201cIt also looks beyond Khan\u2019s confession and presents facts that suggest that successive Pakistani governments have been at least equally complicit with Khan in continuing nuclear proliferation,\u201d\u00a0a CIA compilation<\/a>\u00a0says about the book.<\/p>\n

Whatever happened, three global powers now seem to want to get to the bottom<\/p>\n<\/div>\n