The Last Days of Kim Jong-il: The North Korean Threat in a Changing Era

5 North Korea and Support for Terrorism: An Evolving History

111 orth Korea’s support for terrorism began at least as early as the 1960s as a story about an ideologically based policy (largely financed by the Soviet Union) and ends with a policy designed to put money into the coffers of the elite in Pyongyang, or in short, a “proliferation for hire” policy.1 To understand Pyongyang’s current policy of supporting non-state actors—most proving to be groups acknowledged as terrorists—first one must understand how this policy evolved. The leaders in Pyongyang did not wake up one morning and simply decide to train and equip terrorist groups at various locations around the globe. Rather, North Korea began actively supporting groups that engage in terrorism—and Pyongyang, in fact, engaged in its own acts of terrorism —as a result of the Cold War. But while global paradigms have radically changed since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, North Korea’s policy of actively supporting non-state actors engaged in terrorism has not. This chapter will follow the evolving history of North Korean support for terrorism. In order to understand the early underpinnings of this policy and how it began, it will be important to first address the very beginning of Kim Il-sung’s power base—which began with him as the leader of a partisan group fighting against the Japanese. But Kim did not do this alone, nor did he engage in warfare against his neighbor to the south on his own. Thus, this chapter will provide a brief history of the DPRK (because it also is vital to understanding Pyongyang’s support for terrorist groups) and of the kind of support that Kim Il-sung received from both the USSR and China. It will also examine briefly how Kim Il-sung consolidated his power, because this 5 NORTH KOREA AND SUPPORT FOR TERRORISM An Evolving History N had a direct effect on North Korea’s foreign policy and the way the communist state worked with its sponsors and allies during the Cold War. Then this chapter will analyze North Korea’s role in supporting terrorism during the Cold War years and the specific terrorist groups it supported and why. As the Cold War ended, the North Koreans had built ties to a variety of state and non-state actors. But while the end of the Cold War meant an end to tyranny around much of the globe, it also presented opportunities— and potential for financial gain—for rogue state regimes like North Korea’s. Thus, this chapter will address how North Korea’s support for terrorist groups evolved and reinvented itself during the 1990s and then in the regimes of Kim Jong-il and now Kim Chong-un. North Korea is well known for proliferating a variety of weapons to other rogue states. I have examined this important issue in the past,2 but this chapter will deal specifically with North Korea’s support for terrorist groups: the reasons behind it, the goals reached, and the implications for American foreign policy. North Korea’s Beginnings and Kim Il-sung’s Rise to Power The history of the North Korean regime begins during World War II. During that war, several partisan groups fought with and under the command of both Soviet and Chinese military forces. The Soviets picked Kim Il-sung, a young commander who led one of the partisan groups, to help lead his new nation of North Korea after the war. In the beginning, Soviet “advisers” closely supervised the DPRK, the USSR completely subsidized the new country, and the DPRK military and paramilitary forces utilized Soviet doctrine in their operations and training.3 During the Korean War, which North Korea initiated based on a plan drawn up with the advice and supervision of Soviet advisers, Kim Il-sung also developed a relationship with the newly established People’s Republic of China. Following a near collapse of DPRK forces after the battle of Inchon and the ensuing northern push of American-led UN forces, China came to Kim’s aid. It essentially dedicated large numbers of military forces to the war at the request of Joseph Stalin, who provided funding, logistics, and military equipment to both China and North Korea.4 Eventually, more 112 The Last Days of Kim Jong-il than a million Chinese troops were fighting in the Korean theater of operations by the war’s end. This assistance marked the...