Update 3: See DPRK Forum for several related Al-Jazeera videos.

Update 2: There has been very little new information on the possible North Korea-Syria nuclear tie, though South Korea’s Foreign Minister, Song Min-soon, took it upon himself to dismiss the reports:

“If Syria received nuclear materials from North Korea, it must have a facility to store the nuclear material, but as far as I know, Syria does not have any nuclear (storage) facility,” Song told reporters.

Begs the question: what does Song actually know about secret nuclear facilities in Syria relative to the U.S. or Israel? Probably not much, as that likely is not a focus of South Korean intelligence.

For the most comprehensive updates on this issue see these posts at ROK Drop and OFK.

Update: Details on the alleged facility type; uranium enrichment (h/t Bodhi):

The details of the claims are vague, but one source told FOX News in late August that the North Koreans had sold the Syrians a nuclear facility, most likely related to uranium enrichment. . . Other sources, however, questioned Syria’s ability to afford such a pricey venture. (emphasis added)

Original post: Yesterday news broke (though for some reason the buried, as Joshua notes, a few pages back by the NYT in a story about an Israeli air strike on Syria) that Israeli intelligence claims Syria purchased nuclear material from North Korea:

Israeli officials believed that North Korea might be unloading some of its nuclear material on Syria. “The Israelis think North Korea is selling to Iran and Syria what little they have left” . . . it was unclear whether the Israeli strike had produced any evidence that might validate that belief. (emphasis added)

Today we learn that North Korea and Syria may be cooperating (a different situation than, say, selling plutonium) on a Syrian nuclear-related facility, and that much of the U.S. intelligence community has been kept in the dark:

North Korea may be cooperating with Syria on some sort of nuclear facility in Syria, according to new intelligence the United States has gathered over the past six months, sources said. The evidence, said to come primarily from Israel, includes dramatic satellite imagery that led some U.S. officials to believe that the facility could be used to produce material for nuclear weapons.

The new information, particularly images received in the past 30 days, has been restricted to a few senior officials under the instructions of national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley, leaving many in the intelligence community unaware of it or uncertain of its significance…

[. . .]

In talks in Beijing in March 2003, a North Korean official pulled aside his American counterpart and threatened to “transfer” nuclear material to other countries. President Bush has said that passing North Korean nuclear technology to other parties would cross the line. (emphasis added)

Keeping the intelligence community in the dark concerning such volatile North Korean matters is perhaps not the wisest move, but these days most DPRK-related moves by the Bush administration don’t seem to be.

The take away from these two stories is that North Korea and Syria are likely collaborating on something that could be a) a nuclear facility or; b) an actual transfer of nuclear material, but; c) may be nothing more than missile technology cooperation, or even something less alarming. Bottom line; not yet enough information publicly available to determine where this might go.

The “what ifs”:

• If it is determined/proved that North Korea transferred nuclear material or technology to Syria, that would clearly “cross the line” set by the Bush administration; a chance to see if they will walk the walk or not. This would obviously derail all Six-Party Talks related activity for an undermined amount of time.
• If there was some lesser degree of nuclear related cooperation that is not considered a transfer of technology, this could derail the Six-Party Talks and the (IMO, pseudo) engagement emerging.
• If none of the above – perhaps “just” missile cooperation, or something not even military related – it could be less of a bump in the road than Roh Moo-hyun’s lobbying for Kim Jong-il at his meeting with Bush in Sydney. It’s not like Mossad has never released untrue information to further its goals.

As incredibly stupid as it would be for North Korea to transfer nuclear materials to Syria, it is a possibility. If so, this is looking more and more like the Fall of 2002.

Also see: ROK Drop, OFK, DPRK Forum, and Korean Unification Studies,