North preparing to support Hamas and launch satellite, spy agency says

National Intelligence Agency [JOONGANG ILBO]

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered “comprehensive support for Palestine,” South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers at a closed-door audit on Wednesday.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) told members of the National Assembly’s Intelligence Committee that Pyongyang “is planning how to fully exploit” the conflict between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, according to conservative People Power Party lawmaker Yoo Sang-bum, who attended the meeting.

Yoo also said that the NIS told lawmakers it “detected orders from Kim to provide comprehensive support for Palestine.”

According to the lawmaker, the NIS noted that North Korea has a history of exporting anti-tank weapons and multi-launch rocket launchers to armed groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, which is based in Lebanon.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) report follows the discovery of North Korean weaponry in the possession of Hamas, which conducted an armed raid into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,400 people and abducting over 200 into the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli authorities.

In response, the Israeli military has conducted large-scale bombardment of Gaza to destroy Hamas and launched a series of ground incursions into the enclave after placing it under siege, killing over 8,000 people in the process, according to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza.

The tactics employed by Hamas during the surprise attack on Israel, which included the use of paragliders to overfly Israeli border fences encircling the Gaza Strip, are believed to have been influenced by North Korean training.

The NIS noted that the failure of Israeli intelligence to detect the Hamas attack beforehand raises concerns in South Korea and underscores the need for Seoul to enhance its human intelligence capabilities regarding North Korea.

Additionally, the NIS reported suspicions that North Korea might provide one million artillery shells to Russia, which has been embroiled in an invasion of Ukraine for over a year.

The NIS estimated that the artillery shells supplied by the North would likely provide Russia with enough ammunition for two months.

In September, Kim Jong-un traveled to Russia to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a rare summit, where they agreed to strengthen ties, giving rise to suspicions of potential exchanges of weapons and related technologies.

The NIS told lawmakers that the North is currently in “end-stage preparations” to conduct its third attempt at launching a military spy satellite into orbit.

North Korea had said that it planned to carry out its third attempt to launch a spy satellite into space in October. The North’s previous attempts in May and August failed.

The spy agency told lawmakers that the chances of the launch succeeding this time are higher, thanks to suspected Russian technological assistance after Kim and Putin’s summit.

The Pentagon said on Tuesday that it will continue to monitor the North for signs of a third launch attempt.

While Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder declined to share U.S. intelligence on the North’s satellite program, he repeated Washington's extended deterrence commitment to Seoul and said that there is close cooperation between the allies as well as with Tokyo.

BY LEE HO-JEONG, MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]