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Benazir Bhutto, the then Prime Minister of Pakistan, had consistently denied any role of the Pakistani government in Korea's nuclear ambitions. But now, it has come to light that a CD containing vital nuclear information was carried by her personally to be handed over to her Korean counterpart.
"As she was due to visit North Korea at the end of 1993, she was asked and readily agreed to carry critical nuclear data on her person and hand it over on arrival in Pyongyang.The gist of what she told me was that before leaving Islamabad she shopped for an overcoat with the deepest possible pockets into which she transferred CDs containing the scientific data about uranium which the North Korean wanted.
Pakistan's Strategic Imperative
Kashmir has been a bone of contention between India and Pakistan in the last 60 years and four wars have been fought by Pakistan in its unsuccessful bid to wrest it from India by force. Conventionally, they could never hope to match the Indian war machine. The biggest force leveler would be a viable nuclear deterrent against conventional force asymmetry. With a nuclear deterrent, an incursion into Kashmir would prevent an all out assault by the India's huge military juggernaut against Pakistan which lacked strategic depth.
Thus commenced a covert nuclear program and by the early 1990s Pakistan had acquired the capability to build nuclear weapons using highly enriched uranium cores. But it lacked the delivery systems. American-made F-16s were not a viable option and missiles armed with nuclear warheads were a system of choice as they are not as vulnerable to air defense systems as are aircraft, and are also more cost effective.
But Pakistan did not possess the wherewithal to build a delivery system consisting of long range missiles which it was desperate to acquire, whatever the cost.
Pakistan's Quest For Missile Delivery Systems
Since the Chinese were reluctant to provide Pakistan with the 'M' series of longer range missiles due to American pressure, Pakistan turned to North Korea to view their Nodong prototype. In 1995, the missile deal was consummated and in April 1998, Pakistan test fired the Nodong which was re-christened as Ghauri.
"Evidence for the missile-for-uranium enrichment technology trade probably emerged sometime in 1999. But when U.S. officials raised the subject with the Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, he denied any knowledge of it."
And there it rested. Nawaz Sharif's word was taken as confirmation that there was no such trade going on. Or did it?
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