In this context, it needs to be mentioned that one of the variants of the Iranian Shahab missiles is believed to be a variant of the North Korean Nodong missiles. Apart from Pakistan and Iran, other known beneficiaries of North Korean missile supplies are Libya, Syria and Yemen. In his book Nuclear Terror: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe, Graham Allison has disclosed that the North Koreans set up a company, New World Trading Slovakia, in Bratislava, to buy materials for their own nuclear programme and to sell missile technology to countries such as Egypt, Libya, Syria, Iran and Vietnam. The Slovakian police raided the company run by two North Koreans.

Again, the US National Security Council representative, Michael Green, during his Beijing visit in February 2005, presented top Chinese officials with evidence showing that North Korea had produced several tonnes of a uranium compound that had landed in Libya.

Whatever may be the solution to the crisis engendered by North Korea’s nuclear test, Pakistan will always be considered as part of the problem.

The writer is associate fellow, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi. Views expressed are his own