Arab News Japan

DUBAI: South Korea’s spy agency confirmed on Monday that Hamas has been utilizing North Korean weapons in its war against Israel in Gaza, according to a report by Yonhap, a South Korean news outlet.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) published some visuals of a North Korean rocket to demonstrate that Hamas gunmen used an F-7 rocket -propelled grenade launcher made in North Korea.

Since the war began three months ago, it has been assumed that Hamas employed North Korean weapons, with North Korea’s earliest public denial of the charges coming only a few days after the Oct. 7 strike on Israel.

According to Yonhap, the NIS is “collecting and accumulating” additional proof of North Korea’s transfer of arms to Hamas, but it is currently “difficult to provide such evidence due to the need to protect information sources and consideration of diplomatic ties.”

NIS earlier informed the South Korean parliament that North Korean ruler Kim Jong-Un had directed officials to devise a strategy to support the Palestinian cause.

South Korea’s disclosure comes a few days after it was discovered that North Korea is also transferring weaponry to Russia, which was recently utilized in Russia’s conflict against Ukraine. North Korea declared the statements as a “groundless and false rumor.”

In October, the North Korean central news agency accused the US of attempting to shift responsibility for the war to a third country.

This transfer expands the arsenal of weapons available to the Kremlin for an attack on Ukraine, while also giving Kim Jong Un weapons, cash and commodities to bolster his sanctions- hit economy.