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Prewar Iraq Sought North Korean Missile Production Line
During a two-year period prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom, Iraqi officials and front companies were engaged in lengthy negotiations to purchase a North Korean missile production line — negotiations that were ultimately fruitless, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, Nov. 17). According to Bush administration officials and computer files discovered by international inspectors, prewar Iraq paid North Korea a $10 million down payment for a full production line capable of building Nodong ballistic missiles. “This $10 million was a down payment, and not just a straight purchase for Nodong missiles, but for Nodong technology,” a U.S. official said. Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s “intent was to get the expertise from the North Koreans and, potentially, open his own production line,” the official said. Syria had probably agreed to be the transit route for the Iraqi-North Korean missile deal, investigators said. U.S. officials also said that the Iraqi official who arranged the deal is now living in Syria under apparent government protection. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad yesterday, however, denied any involvement in any Iraqi-North Korean missile deal. “This is the first time I have heard this story,” al-Assad said. “[Hussein] was never able to trust Syria, and he never tried and we never tried to make any relation between him and any other country because he did not trust us in the first place,” he added. In the end, however, the Iraqi-North Korean deal fell through, according to the Times. A month before the United States invaded Iraq, Iraqi officials traveled to Syria to demand that North Korea return almost $2 million because of failures to meet deadlines for the initial shipment of goods. An investigator said that North Korea had rejected the request, telling the Iraqi officials that “things were too hot” to begin the missile-related shipments through Syria (Sanger/Shanker, New York Times, Dec. 1).
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