Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury
The North Korea-Pakistan nuclear axis that India
has red-flagged, which has substantially contributed to Islamabad's missile
programme, is a legacy issue that dates back to the mid-1970s and not just
began with AQ Khan's illicit nuclear proliferation network. The Pak-North Korea
nuclear partnership remains the biggest obstacle for Islamabad's entry into the
Nuclear Supplier’s Group. New Delhi is worried that mainstreaming of North
Korea might sidestep the issue of Pakistan’s role as a a proliferator of nuclear
weapons technology in what may strengthen Islamabad’s argument to enter elite
club.
On Tuesday, while welcoming the US-North Korea
Summit, India’s foreign ministry said it hoped the “resolution of the Korean
Peninsula issue will take into account and address our concerns about
proliferation linkages extending to India’s neighbourhood”. The foundations of
the Islamabad-Pyongyang security partnership were forged during then Pakistani
Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s 1976 visit to North Korea, officials here
recalled.
The Pak-N Korea axis deepened in the 1990s when
ZA Bhutto's daughter, Benazir Bhutto, was the PM. Benazir Bhutto purchased the
Rodong long-range missiles from North Korea and in exchange, supplied Pyongyang
with civilian nuclear technology, said one of the officials, speaking on the
condition of anonymity. "The Singapore meeting of (US President Donald)
Trump and Kim Jong-un (of North Korea) has set the ball rolling on not just the
nuclear but also East Asian security aspects.
The meeting appeared to have legitimised the
proliferation record of North Korea and thereby that of Pak as well,” China
expert Srikanth Kondapalli told ET. “China, which opposed Indian clean waiver
in IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and NSG because India did not sign
NPT, is playing double standards. It did not pass an 1172 kind of resolution in
UNSC on North Korea (the 1998 resolution had condemned nuclear tests by India
and Pakistan).
It violated UNSC sanctions by exporting dual use
materials and echnologies to NK. Now it is not asking NK to sign NPT," he
said. Pakistan had allegedly exported gas centrifuges to help North Korea
enrich uranium and build a nuclear bomb and has not fully adhered to UN
sanctions against Pyongyang, another official noted. Islamabad’s nuclear
technology assistance to North Korea during the late 1990s corresponded with an
increase in Chinese support for Pakistan’s nuclear programme as an all-weather
friend.
While Pakistan became an ally in the US war
against terror after the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks, Islamabad’s military
cooperation with North Korea continued under then President Pervez Musharraf.
Musharraf even prevented the US from interrogating AQ Khan, the Pak nuclear
scientist who assisted the nuclear programme of North Korea. The Pakistani
government declared Khan a “free citizen” in 2009. Two years later, Khan
alleged that the Pakistani army had provided North Korea with nuclear materials
in lieu of a $3 million bribe, confirming collaboration between the Pak Army
and the North Korean establishment.
Expansion in the Pakistan-North Korea axis is a
result of the Sino-Pak friendship. The Chinese government has tacitly supported
Pakistan’s support for Pyongyang to break the near isolation of the East Asian
country, according to experts. Shirley A Khan, an adviser to the US Congress on
Asian security affairs, claimed in 2009 that Islamabad’s nuclear technology
assistance to North Korea during the late 1990s was simultaneously done with an
increase in Chinese support for Pakistan’s nuclear programme. This also helped
Pakistan’s strategic importance to grow vis-à-vis China. China has also
defended Pakistan from international criticism of Islamabad’s nuclear weapons
capabilities and non-proliferation track record.
