According to a report by the Center for Korean Affairs, a chartered plane carrying 20 North Korean nuclear scientists took off from Islamabad airport on June 10, 1998. The scientists were reportedly present at the nuclear test in Balochistan.

Starting with the North Korean supply of artillery, munitions and military equipment to Islamabad, the Pakistan-North Korea pact for arms transfer is now some three decades old. The initial trade relationship might have been based on North Korean needs for hard currency and Pakistani demands for army equipment. This later turned into a barter arrangement. The watershed in terms of state-level authorisation for covert projects is probably the 1993 Benazir Bhutto visit, followed by A.Q. Khan’s trip.

On nuclear technology transfers, Bhutto has tried to duck responsibility saying that “it is quite possible that in 1998, when we were facing a financial crunch because of our nuclear tests, this (exchange of nuclear technology for missiles) might have happened, but not by us.” In fact, the Pakistani economy was passing through a rough phase in the 1990s because of the lack of assistance similar to what they got from the US during the Afghan war. Bhutto’s admission not only shows how Pakistan got into ‘the bartering’ relationship with Korea, it is also suggestive of a collaboration between the two ‘determined’ proliferators.

Meanwhile, North Korea has moved ahead on the path of trading missile and nuclear technologies and is fast stepping into the shoes of its benefactors. Pakistan had been the centre of two-way parallel proliferation activities — gaining from outside and simultaneously trading outside — and North Korea seems to replicate the trend.

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