ATP 7-100.2 DISTRIBUTION RESTRICTION: Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited i Army Techniques Publication No. 7-100.2 Headquarters Department of the Army Washington, DC, 24 July 2020 NORTH KOREA MILITARY TACTICS
In September 2006 and April 2007, Intelligence Online, a French internet publication specializing in political and economic intelligence in the Middle East, published two reports detailing an extensive program by North Korea to provide arms and training to Hezbollah.
Summary Points From These Reports
- Iran is the facilitator of the North Korea-Hezbollah relationship.
- The program began in the late 1980s and early 1990s with visits by Hezbollah cadre to Pyongyang. These Hezbollah visits involved training courses for several months.
- Three current top Hezbollah officials had received training in North Korea during this earlier period: Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s secretary-general and head of Hezbollah’s military organization; Ibrahim Akil, the director of Hezbollah’s security and intelligence service; and Mustapha Badreddine, Hezbollah’s counter-espionage chief.
- After 2000, the program expanded with the dispatch of North Korean Army trainers and engineers to southern Lebanon, where they instructed Hezbollah cadre in developing extensive underground military facilities, including tunnels and bunkers.
- North Korea and Hezbollah strengthened and expanded their relationship after the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
- Tehran and Pyongyang had reached an agreement under which about 100 Hezbollah field commanders would receive training in North Korea from North Korea’s elite commando infiltration units and also training on intelligence-gathering and counter-espionage. This was part of a broader Iranian program after the Israel-Hezbollah war to bring Hezbollah cadre to Iran for advanced military training.