Declassified South Korean documents have revealed that North Korea began providing arms to Iran after the Iran-Iraq war broke out in 1980. That was one of the findings in about 180,000 pages of secret documents the South Korean government made public on Sunday. Among the papers are the minutes of talks between South Korean Foreign Minister Roh Shin-yeong and US Ambassador in Seoul William Gleysteen in October 1980. At the meeting, Gleysteen said the US believes the North has been providing Tehran with ammunitions in about 2 dozen round-trips between Pyongyang and Iran. Roh said his government has confirmed that North Korea sent anti-aircraft artillery and anti-tank rockets to Iran. A report from the South Korean Embassy in Iran said that machine guns, armored vehicles and other kinds of military equipment were unloaded in Iran from 16 North Korean ships. These documents suggest that the 2 nations started bilateral arms trade more than 30 years ago. The papers also indicate that Pyongyang sent 6,000 military personnel to 31 nations in Asia, Africa and South America from 1960s through August 1981. North Korea was apparently working to forge military ties not just with Iran, but with many other countries.
(KBS World radio, 2012-03-19)
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