North Korean Nuclear Technology in Syria? Maybe Not
There was a lot of skepticism last year when claims emerged that Syria was in possession of nuclear technology acquired from that evil of evils, North Korea. I’ve previously voiced suspicion that North Korea had little if anything to do with Syria’s nuclear program; at that time, I’d narrowed down Syria’s potential nuclear sugar daddies to a short list of basically three countries - Russia, China, and America’s tried-and-true freedom-loving buddy Pakistan, home of the kind and benevolent Perves Musharraf and the infamous A.Q. Khan. A lot of people like to pretend that Khan’s little nuclear garage sales never took place, but a number of factors - including the timeline of Syria’s nuclear program - seemed to point to him as a good bet for their source of materials and expertise.
I stumbled across an interesting tidbit of information, though, which makes me wonder about that.
In an undated PowerPoint presentation, the NNSA mentions in passing that one of their concerns is highly-enriched uranium materials of Chinese origin in Syria. Not being a full-time arms control wonk, I can’t find a single further reference to Chinese nuclear material in Syria. However, assuming the NNSA is right, the existence of some sort of nuclear partnership between Beijing and Damascus adds weight to China’s deeper all-round involvement in Syria’s nuclear program. Equally noteworthy, there’s still no meaningful evidence of nuclear cooperation between Pyongyang and Damascus…
It’s one thing to scapegoat North Korea; it’s another to cover for or ignore our “allies” potential proliferation gaffes. Objectively, the U.S. doesn’t want Syria to have nuclear technology. It’s fairly stupid, but that’s the apparent policy. Equally stupid, however, is blaming a country for whose involvement in the process there is no evidence whatsoever, while - as far as the rest of the world can tell - ignoring and thereby tacitly approving of another party’s having done so.
Is it any wonder we’re becoming a global laughingstock?
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