Israel recently accused North Korea of covertly supplying six Middle Eastern countries with the means to produce weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles, ignoring international non-proliferation agreements. Addressing a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Austria, on Saturday, Israeli representative David Danieli charged, "At a time when the international community concentrates on North Korea's nuclear activities and its non-compliance with safeguards agreements, the Middle East is at the receiving end of North Korea's reckless practices."
Without naming the countries in question, Danieli said that "at least half a dozen" Middle Eastern states "have become eager recipients of North Korea, mostly through black market and covert network channels." Those states, he emphasized, "do not even pay lip service to control regimes and are acting in bad faith regarding their stated policy and their undertakings regarding non-proliferation conventions." Danieli went on to comment that the international community is ignoring the North Korean role in the regional arms race, but "this dark aspect of North Korean behavior... has become a matter of great concern to my government and others."
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