This is one Indian complaint about Pakistan the latter cannot dismiss — Islamabad is deeply implicated in Pyongyang’s nuclear jingoism and there’s evidence all over, for anyone to see.

In a background briefing to journalists on February 1, 2004, a senior Pakistani official admitted that A.Q. Khan had been instrumental in covertly transferring nuclear technology and equipment to Iran, Libya and North Korea. Khan is believed to have made more than a dozen trips to North Korea till as recently as June 2002.

The Pakistan Army was in all likelihood privy to Khan’s role in proliferation activities. Khan has reportedly disclosed that in addition to Pervez Musharraf, two other army chiefs, Abdul Waheed and his successor, Jehangir Karamat, knew and approved of his nuclear dealings with North Korea. The western media has revealed that Benazir Bhutto had traveled to North Korea at the request of General Abdul Waheed. General Karamat also secretly visited North Korea in December 1997.

Authoritative reports tell us that North Korea placed orders for centrifuge components from 1997 to 1999, and Khan and his associates provided direct technical assistance to that country from 1998 onwards. The western media has extensively reported how P-1 and P-2 machines were transferred clandestinely from Pakistan to North Korea along with drawings, sketches, technical data and uranium hexafluoride gas — the feedstock for gas centrifuges. It was also widely reported that many of the shipments to North Korea were flown directly from Pakistan using chartered and Pakistan Air Force planes. In exchange, North Korea supplied missile technology.

... contd.