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North Korea Could Sell Saudi Arabia Nuclear Weapons

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The Ultimate Nightmare: North Korea Could Sell Saudi Arabia Nuclear Weapons | The National Interest

The Ultimate Nightmare: North Korea Could Sell Saudi Arabia Nuclear Weapons
Pakistan won't sell Saudi Arabia a nuclear bomb, but North Korea might.

Zachary Keck
June 23, 2015

One of the gravest concerns about Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon is that it will set off a nuclear arms race in the region, whereas Iran’s acquisition of the bomb prompts its neighbors to follow suit. As President Obama warned in 2012, if Iran gets nuclear weapons, “It is almost certain that other players in the region would feel it necessary to get their own nuclear weapons.”

No country is seen as more likely to go nuclear in response to Iran doing so as Saudi Arabia, Iran’s long-standing rival in the region. Saudi officials have done little to tamp down such fears, instead indulging them repeatedly. Just last month, Prince Turki bin Faisal, Saudi Arabia’s former intelligence chief, told a South Korean conference: “Whatever the Iranians have, we will have, too.”

With a few exceptions, nearly everyone who fears that Saudi Arabia will acquire a nuclear weapon nonetheless concedes Riyadh wouldn’t build a bomb itself. Instead, the general consensus has long held that Saudi Arabia would purchase off-the-shelf nuclear weapons from Pakistan. Indeed, concerns about a secret Saudi-Pakistani nuclear pact date back to the 1970s and 1980s, and have become especially prevalent over the past decade and a half.

As I and others have long argued, this notion is far-fetched. While Saudi Arabia would want to buy a nuclear arsenal from Pakistan, Islamabad has no reason to sell nuclear weapons to Riyadh.

To begin with, Pakistan already worries that its arsenal is too small to survive an Indian or American counterforce strike. Moreover, selling Saudi Arabia nuclear weapons would result in unprecedented backlash from most of the international community, including both the United States and China, Pakistan’s major patrons. It would also enrage Iran, who is well positioned to retaliate against Pakistan in numerous ways, from supporting separatists in Balochistan to further cozying up to India.

Any remaining concerns about whether Pakistan would sell Saudi Arabia nuclear weapons were seeming put to rest back in April, when Islamabad refused to participate in the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen. If Pakistan refused to send in even a symbolic contingent of troops to participate in the Saudi-led mission, it certainly wouldn’t give Riyadh its most valuable military assets.

But while Saudi Arabia couldn’t purchase a nuclear weapon from Pakistan, it might have more luck with North Korea. In fact, there are a number of compelling reasons to believe North Korea might be amenable to such a request.

Most obviously, North Korea has a troubling history of proliferating nuclear technology, including to the Middle East. There have long been persistent (albeit largely unconfirmed) rumors that North Korea has provided Iran with nuclear technology, and Pyongyang also helped Syria build a nuclear reactor (which Israel destroyed in airstrikes in 2011). More generally, North Korea has a long track record of selling advanced military technology like ballistic missiles to numerous pariah nations.

Moreover, Saudi Arabia would be an extremely valuable patron for North Korea. Currently, Kim Jong-un is trying to improve the economy especially for North Korean elites in order to shore up support for his rule. This effort has been made extremely difficult by the more hardline stance China has taken against North Korea ever since Xi Jinping came to power in 2012.

Pyongyang has been scrambling to find suitable replacements for China, but so far it has had little luck. Russia appears to want to improve ties with North Korea, but its growing financial woes will limit its ability to provide North Korea with enough economic assistance to offset the loss of Chinese aid. Meanwhile, South Korea appears intent on limiting its economic relationship with North Korea absent significant concessions from Pyongyang on the latter’s nuclear program.

Saudi Arabia would face none of these constraints. Unlike South Korea, Saudi Arabia is not overtly threatened by North Korea’s nuclear program. And unlike Russia, it does not face enormous financial difficulties.

In fact, Saudi Arabia is awash in petrodollars, boasting the third largest foreign currency reserves in the world after only China and Japan. Although it has been using these to soften the impact of lower oil prices, it still has $708 billion in FX reserves, more than enough to provide significant support for North Korea.

Saudi Arabia could also provide North Korea with other kinds of valuable assistance. For instance, foreign workers make up over half of Saudi Arabia’s labor force, and North Koreans working in Saudi Arabia could provide the Hermit Kingdom with another significant source of hard currency. Indeed, this is one of the Kim regime’s favorite tactics for skirting international sanctions. As the Asan Institute of Policy Studies has explained: “Earnings are not sent back as remittances, but appropriated by the state and transferred back to the country in the form of bulk cash, in clear violation on UN sanctions.”

Some estimate that as many as 65,000 North Koreans are working abroad in 40 different countries, and that this number has doubled or even tripled since Kim Jong-un took power. Yet, according to Asan, Saudi Arabia doesn’t even rank in the top ten nations in terms of North Korean laborers. Changing that would be a huge boon to the Kim regime.

Finally, besides hard cash, North Korea faces a chronic energy shortage, with China accounting for nearly 90 percent of North Korea’s energy imports in recent years. Saudi oil and natural gas could significantly reduce North Korea’s reliance on China for its energy needs, while also helping to stimulate the North Korean economy.

All of this suggests that if Saudi Arabia purchases off-the-shelf nuclear weapons, they are more likely to come from North Korea than Pakistan.

Zachary Keck is the managing editor of The National Interest. You can find him on Twitter: @ZacharyKeck.
 
More idiotic articles evolving around KSA. Like PDF has not enough of that already. The same 3-4 users always provide such moronic articles a few times each month, sometimes even a few times each week. The obsession is really impressive and more often than not bound in enormous butthurt too.

Zachary Keck or whatever his name is nor any other journalist anywhere out there (certainly not those writing for the Western tabloid press) have any idea about KSA in regards to nuclear energy or nuclear weapons.

Yesterday some idiotic report in a Pakistani tabloid was posted about KSA "begging" or demanding Pakistan to send troops while that is not even needed nor was it in the first place other than more added political clout. Still numerous clowns believe that KSA was demanding that 100.000 Pakistani soldiers should be sent while in reality 500 or 1000 would be enough to send the message.

Then an article in a Kuwaiti paper by some unknown Kuwaiti journalist was discussed for weeks and made into I don't know what. Followed by nonsense comments about KSA and the 450 million Arabs most of which never asked Pakistan for anything.

Then people here wonder why there are almost no Arabs left and why so many Arab users left PDF.

Please carry on.

P.S:

Antarctica will be the exporter. Or Iran if they ever develop nuclear weapons. The Iranian Arabs ruling Iran will do their duty as the leader of the Ummah and holy cows.
 
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More idiotic articles evolving around KSA. Like PDF has not enough of that already. The same 3-4 users always provide such moronic articles a few times each month, sometimes even a few times each week. The obsession is really impressive and more often than not bound in enormous butthurt too.

Zachary Keck or whatever his name is nor any other journalist anywhere out there (certainly not those writing for the Western tabloid press) have any idea about KSA in regards to nuclear energy or nuclear weapons.

Yesterday some idiotic report in a Pakistani tabloid was posted about KSA "begging" or demanding Pakistan to send troops while that is not even needed nor was it in the first place other than more added political clout. Still numerous clowns believe that KSA was demanding that 100.000 Pakistani soldiers should be sent while in reality 500 or 1000 would be enough to send the message.

Then an article in a Kuwaiti paper by some unknown Kuwaiti journalist was discussed for weeks and made into I don't know what. Followed by nonsense comments about KSA and the 450 million Arabs most of which never asked Pakistan for anything.

Then people here wonder why there are almost no Arabs left and why so many Arab users left PDF.

Please carry on.

P.S:

Antarctica will be the exporter. Or Iran if they ever develop nuclear weapons. The Iranian Arabs ruling Iran will do their duty as the leader of the Ummah and holy cows.
Please feel free to leave if you can not take criticism from PDF members, no one is begging you to stay here. Furthermore KSA was demanding troops from Pakistan, with Emirati minister issuing ultimatums and Kuwaitis running their mouths, these are few facts. No offense but Arabs can't fight anyone but themselves, the only effective fighting force in the Arab world was Hizbullah (which I was never a fan of), but thanks to Syrian war its left completely exposed as well. Majority of Pakistani PDF members support sending troops to KSA if the territory is violated. And I am not one of them. Both Iran and KSA have burned middle east beyond recognition. Besides that you have no right to demand respect, if you fail to respect us.
 
Please feel free to leave if you can not take criticism from PDF members, no one is begging you to stay here. Furthermore KSA was demanding troops from Pakistan, with Emirati minister issuing ultimatums and Kuwaitis running their mouths, these are few facts. No offense but Arabs can't fight anyone but themselves, the only effective fighting force in the Arab world was Hizbullah (which I was never a fan of), but thanks to Syrian war its left completely exposed as well. Majority of Pakistani PDF members support sending troops to KSA if the territory is violated. And I am not one of them. Both Iran and KSA have burned middle east beyond recognition. Besides that you have no right to demand respect, if you fail to respect us.

More diarrhea. You have no clue about what you are talking about. KSA never demanded anything. They asked for Pakistan to send a SYMBOLIC force in order to gain more political clout. More precisely regiments that are experienced in mountain warfare. That's all. We don't need Pakistani technology as KSA is better armed nor money obviously.

Kuwaitis? LOL. So one journalist on some newspaper equals millions of Kuwaitis? Interesting logic.

Nor do ramblings of 1 minister from UAE (on Twitter of all places!) in the heat of the moment represent the official position of the UAE but I guess that you are not familiar with politicians being idiots. Being from Pakistan I guess that you would have been used to that given what I can read on PDF from Pakistanis themselves of all people.

Nice fairytale right there about armies and Hezbollah.

KSA received the support of the entire Arab world excluding Algeria and Iraq and most of the Muslim world, the UN and major Western powers but given how much KSA has done for Pakistan it should not have been a problem to send a symbolic force to a long-standing ally that sticked with you throughout your most difficult periods and still does.

But don't worry KSA will do fine regardless and have taken its conclusions.

Also keep believing crap articles such as this one or the numerous idiotic ones posted about KSA for all I care too. Good comedy for all the rest of us.

Anyway my comment was a side-comment to the number of idiotic threads about KSA on PDF. This topic has been discussed to death and I will let the keyboard warriors without any influence on the ground to bark all they want to here or elsewhere.
 
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With such pearls of wisdom, I am the one who is having verbal diarrhea, strange!

More diarrhea. You have no clue about what you are talking about. KSA never demanded anything. They asked for Pakistan to send a SYMBOLIC force in order to gain more political clout. More precisely regiments that are experienced in mountain warfare. That's all. We don't need Pakistani technology as KSA is better armed nor money obviously.

So needed a symbolic participation, yet very specifically asked for which regiment to send. Of course you don't need our tech or forces that is why Pakistani SSG units are stationed for protection of Royal Family along with other forces, yet we are not needed. Duly noted. By the way, in 1990 you also did not needed USA to protect you from Saddam as well since you were better equipped than Iraqi Army, what happened? Americans didn't give keys for all the shiny toys?


Kuwaitis? LOL. So one journalist on some newspaper equals millions of Kuwaitis? Interesting logic.

You point would be totally valid if the country in question was not Kuwait. The worst kind of treatment is melted to Pakistanis by Kuwait, so yeah all of Kuwaitis are a$$holes.

Nor do ramblings of 1 minister from UAE in the heat of the moment the official UAE position but I guess that you are not familiar with politicians being idiots. Being from Pakistan I guess that you would have been used to that given what I can read on PDF from Pakistanis themselves of all people.
Right, so I should not take an Emirati deputy minister of state serious. If it was from sub-continent I would laugh it off but from UAE, it is something serious. Further more no clarification was issued by the government as well, so yeah we took it serious.


Nice fairytale right there about armies and Hezbollah.

Here is another story, over the past 65 years, there was only once Arabs were able to hand Israel their asses and it wasn't an alliance of some great Arab armies but that of Hizbullah. Again not a fan of those jerks but credit where its due, they really made Israel suffer a humiliating retreat in last war. No Arab army is capable of facing Israel, so please familiarize yourself with some history, it will be helpful.


KSA received the support of the entire Arab world excluding Algeria and Iraq and most of the Muslim world, the UN and major Western powers but given how much KSA has done for Pakistan it should not have been a problem to send a symbolic force to a long-standing ally that sticked with you throughout your most difficult periods and still does.

But don't worry KSA will do fine regardless and have taken its conclusions.

HAHAHA, sure western powers are yardstick of being righteous. What ever you think you have done for us, we have repaid 10 times of that so don't give us this crap. Our people had fought your wars for decades, yet you look down upon us with disgust, treat us in the worst manner possible. But when it comes to fighting your battles and spilling blood, you demand that we knock our heels together come and die for you. KSA is an ally, than it should behave as one. You are not our masters.
And please don't get me started about the toxic ideology that KSA imported to the whole Islamic world, thanks to your petro dollars we have indeed paid a huge price.

Also keep believing crap articles such as this one or the numerous idiotic ones posted about KSA for all I care too. Good comedy for all the rest of us.

Keep on hallucinating about defeating Houthis and greatness of this coalition. Even with all the "high tech", under equipped Houthis are consolidating their grip.
Enough said.
 
With such pearls of wisdom, I am the one who is having verbal diarrhea, strange!



So needed a symbolic participation, yet very specifically asked for which regiment to send. Of course you don't need our tech or forces that is why Pakistani SSG units are stationed for protection of Royal Family along with other forces, yet we are not needed. Duly noted. By the way, in 1990 you also did not needed USA to protect you from Saddam as well since you were better equipped than Iraqi Army, what happened? Americans didn't give keys for all the shiny toys?




You point would be totally valid if the country in question was not Kuwait. The worst kind of treatment is melted to Pakistanis by Kuwait, so yeah all of Kuwaitis are a$$holes.


Right, so I should not take an Emirati deputy minister of state serious. If it was from sub-continent I would laugh it off but from UAE, it is something serious. Further more no clarification was issued by the government as well, so yeah we took it serious.




Here is another story, over the past 65 years, there was only once Arabs were able to hand Israel their asses and it wasn't an alliance of some great Arab armies but that of Hizbullah. Again not a fan of those jerks but credit where its due, they really made Israel suffer a humiliating retreat in last war. No Arab army is capable of facing Israel, so please familiarize yourself with some history, it will be helpful.




HAHAHA, sure western powers are yardstick of being righteous. What ever you think you have done for us, we have repaid 10 times of that so don't give us this crap. Our people had fought your wars for decades, yet you look down upon us with disgust, treat us in the worst manner possible. But when it comes to fighting your battles and spilling blood, you demand that we knock our heels together come and die for you. KSA is an ally, than it should behave as one. You are not our masters.
And please don't get me started about the toxic ideology that KSA imported to the whole Islamic world, thanks to your petro dollars we have indeed paid a huge price.



Keep on hallucinating about defeating Houthis and greatness of this coalition. Even with all the "high tech", under equipped Houthis are consolidating their grip.
Enough said.

Which "protection" are you talking about?

What has 25 year old events to do with anything? Times change you know? Shall I mention your military history vis-á-vis India and Afghanistan?

If you want to talk about history, Arab military history overall is second to none among non-Westerners which the number of Arab caliphates, kingdoms, emirates, sheikdoms, sultanates etc. on 3 continents confirm. All founded and ruled by people originally from Arabia. They conquered and ruled what is today Pakistan too. You already know that.

Yes, Kuwaitis are eating Pakistanis for breakfast and are an long-standing enemy of Pakistan!.

No, it was not.

Israel is untouchable due to nukes and Western support. Without that Syria alone would overrun Israel and the Palestinians would do theirs too.

More nonsense.

Houthi's have lost 3000 men and their entire infrastructure is destroyed. Saudi Arabia has lost less than 40 soldiers in comparison. Besides you have no clue about the conflict in Yemen. Houthi's have the majority support of the Yemeni army, leftovers of the Saleh regime. For now at least.

Outside of that the Houthi's are a guerrilla force who are fighting in a mountainous region. You might take a look at how the US is doing (world's undisputed superpower) against lesser armed Taliban. 14 years and they cannot defeat them. Or just look in your own backyard in Pakistan.

But I guess there is no logic in what you are blabbering about as long it does not suit your bias and as long as you can cry about KSA.


Yes, KSA hates Pakistanis and Pakistans that's why we host millions of you and have hosted millions, donated billions to your poor economy. If you believe all the fairytales that you are blabbering about then you are in for a shock in terms of other Muslim and especially non-Muslim countries perceptions of you. Hint, they are much worse.

In short you have no clue about KSA. The average Arabian has nothing but mostly affinity for Pakistan and Pakistanis.

Houthi's were threatening of invading KSA yet we see nothing. They share a over 1000 km long border with KSA. On the other hand they are getting slaughtered on a daily basis.

Also for your information the war is not over yet. Your beloved Houthi's will be hunted down by Yemenis themselves eventually when the regrouping is complete. Those that have not been eliminated by KSA.

Anyway I am not interested in this dissuasion. Continue your nonsense elsewhere and blame all your miseries on KSA and tell us all how evil the Arabs are and how much they hate Pakistan and Pakistanis (lol).
 
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You are dumber than I first thought.
Stop looking in the mirror, your mind will be more confused than it already is.

Which "protection" are you talking about?

What has 25 year old events to do with anything? Times change you know? Shall I mention your military history vis-a-vis India and Afghanistan?

Yes please mention it, also enlighten us about Afghanistan as well which thanks to the garbage you sent our way is completely messed up.

If you want to talk history then Arab military history overall is second to none among non-Westerners which the number of Arab Caliphates, kingdoms, emirates, sheikdoms, sultanates etc. on 3 continents confirm. All founded and ruled by people originally from Arabia. They conquered and ruled what is today Pakistan too. You already know that.

Yeah the glorious arab history, then mongols came and handed everyone their asses. But unlike you I won't deny the great military history of Arab world. But over past 100 years, you have nothing to show but harping about the past licking own wounds and comforting with stories of past glories.


Yes, Kuwaitis are eating Pakistanis for breakfast.
Never said that, but what the heck since your argument is a failed attempt at sarcasm so continue.

Israel is untouchable due to nukes and Western support. Without that Syria alone would overrun Israel and the Palestinians would do theirs too.

Really a moment ago you were stating that KSA is more equipped and got more dough than us. Syria would eat Israel, nice joke. Israel is making arabs run around it, and there isn't a thing anyone can do about it besides making excuses.

More nonsense.

Houthi's have lost 3000 men and their entire infrastructure is destroyed. Saudi Arabia has lost less than 40 soldiers in comparison. Besides you have no clue about the conflict in Yemen. Houthi's have the majority support of the Yemeni army, leftovers of the Saleh regime. For now at least.

You really know yourself well, good. Yes Houthi airforce vs KSA airforce.. oh wait they don't have any just like KSA have no troops on the ground, that is why we were needed. Guess doing all those passing out parades in night won't prepare you to fight real wars.

Outside of that Houthi's are a guerrilla force who are fighting in a mountainous region. You might take a look how the US is doing (world's undisputed superpower) against lesser armed Taliban. 14 years and they cannot defeat them. Or just look in your own backyard in Pakistan.

But I guess there is no logic in what you are blabbering about as long it does not suit you and as long as you can cry about KSA.

History, history, history, knowing it will save you from embarrassments such as this. One time talk about glorious past and a moment later giving examples of a failures of a modern super power. Feel free to repeat it, if what happened last time an Arab army went into Yemen lesson is lost to you. And by the way whole world must learn from PA successful counterinsurgency campaign for last 1 1/2 years. That is the exact kind of experience that you guys needed but don't have.

Yes, KSA hates Pakistanis and Pakistans that's why we host millions of you and have hosted millions, donated billions to your poor economy. If you believe all the fairytales that you are blabbering about then you are in for a shock in terms of other Muslim and especially non-Muslim countries vis-a-vis perception.

Houthi's were threatening of invading KSA yet we see nothing. On the other hand they are getting slaughtered on a daily basis.

I am sorry but I ain't a believer of any tales. If you state that maltreatment of Pakistanis is a fairytale than you're lying out of your teeth and you know it. Oh please spare me the supporting Pakistani economy and giving aid crap giving peanuts and crying as if Pakistan's economy is solely depended on your aid. Your toxic ideology and donors to TTP and its affiliates have done more damage than good to us.

Your condescendence proves the weakness of your argument.
 
More idiotic articles evolving around KSA. Like PDF has not enough of that already. The same 3-4 users always provide such moronic articles a few times each month, sometimes even a few times each week. The obsession is really impressive and more often than not bound in enormous butthurt too.

Zachary Keck or whatever his name is nor any other journalist anywhere out there (certainly not those writing for the Western tabloid press) have any idea about KSA in regards to nuclear energy or nuclear weapons.

Yesterday some idiotic report in a Pakistani tabloid was posted about KSA "begging" or demanding Pakistan to send troops while that is not even needed nor was it in the first place other than more added political clout. Still numerous clowns believe that KSA was demanding that 100.000 Pakistani soldiers should be sent while in reality 500 or 1000 would be enough to send the message.

Then an article in a Kuwaiti paper by some unknown Kuwaiti journalist was discussed for weeks and made into I don't know what. Followed by nonsense comments about KSA and the 450 million Arabs most of which never asked Pakistan for anything.

Then people here wonder why there are almost no Arabs left and why so many Arab users left PDF.

Please carry on.

P.S:

Antarctica will be the exporter. Or Iran if they ever develop nuclear weapons. The Iranian Arabs ruling Iran will do their duty as the leader of the Ummah and holy cows.
Bro, don't take it to heart. It's just another day on PDF. Everyone comes here to troll one another. Very few members actually post anything of value.
 
Please feel free to leave if you can not take criticism from PDF members, no one is begging you to stay here. Furthermore KSA was demanding troops from Pakistan, with Emirati minister issuing ultimatums and Kuwaitis running their mouths, these are few facts. No offense but Arabs can't fight anyone but themselves, the only effective fighting force in the Arab world was Hizbullah (which I was never a fan of), but thanks to Syrian war its left completely exposed as well. Majority of Pakistani PDF members support sending troops to KSA if the territory is violated. And I am not one of them. Both Iran and KSA have burned middle east beyond recognition. Besides that you have no right to demand respect, if you fail to respect us.
Well put...
 
But many analyst in Pakistan are accepting that ME countries have already bought them from an ASIAN friend; decades ago.
 
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