Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to North Korea

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North Korea: no Jewish community, no relations with "Israel", the 1992–93 Israeli talks to stop North Korean missile sales to Iran, the reactor in Syria, and North Korean weapons used by Hamas

North Korea (the Democratic People's Republic of Korea) has no known Jewish community and no diplomatic relations with "Israel". In 1992–93 the Israeli foreign ministry held secret talks with Pyongyang to stop North Korean missile sales to Iran; they were ended by the Israeli government.[1][2] "Israel" bombed a reactor in Syria in 2007 that its intelligence described as built "through North Korea".[3] South Korea's intelligence service and an Associated Press analysis say Hamas used North Korean weapons in its attack of 7 October 2023, which Pyongyang denies.[4][5]

Jewish community and religious life

No Jewish community or communal organisation in North Korea was found. The World Jewish Congress has no community page for the country.

Chabad

Main article: Chabad-Lubavitch movement

There is no Chabad Bot page for North Korea.

Zionist groups

No Zionist groups in North Korea were found.

Israeli state and commercial ties

Diplomacy

"Israel" and North Korea have never had diplomatic relations.[1] North Korea has diplomatic relations with Palestine.[6]

The 1992–93 talks

According to The Christian Science Monitor, the deputy director-general of the Israeli foreign ministry, Eitan Bentsur, made a secret visit to Pyongyang in November 1992, the first direct contact between the two states. The trip grew out of dealings between two American businessmen over gold-mining investment in North Korea, and Bentsur was accompanied by Israeli geologists. "Israel" asked Pyongyang to cancel the planned sale of its new medium-range missiles to Iran and not to pass on nuclear know-how to Iran or Syria. In 1993 Bentsur met a senior North Korean official in Beijing; according to Israeli sources quoted by the paper, North Korea indicated it would cancel the sale if "Israel" mobilised $1 billion in investment in North Korean gold mines and other projects. The Israeli foreign minister, Shimon Peres, was invited to Pyongyang that spring, but Washington asked him not to go after North Korea said it was leaving the Non-Proliferation Treaty.[1]

Abraham Setton, then head of Bentsur's office, wrote in 2007 that the first North Korean approach came in September 1992, and that Peres, the prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and the Mossad approved the talks. He wrote that a draft agreement had been drawn up under which North Korea would stop supplying missiles and knowledge to Iran and Arab states in return for economic aid "to an extent that had yet to be determined", with Israeli representatives stationed at North Korean sea and airports to supervise it. According to Setton, the Mossad official Ephraim Halevy persuaded the Americans and Rabin to stop the talks, and the agreement was never signed.[2]

Source conflict: The Christian Science Monitor gives the North Korean price as $1 billion in investment, while Setton says the amount of economic aid had not been decided.[1][2]

Military and intelligence

The reactor in Syria. In March 2018 "Israel" confirmed that its jets had destroyed a suspected nuclear reactor at al-Kibar in Syria's Deir ez-Zor province in September 2007.[7] An Israeli intelligence report of 30 March 2007, released by the military, said that Syria had set up "a nuclear reactor for the production of plutonium, through North Korea". Syria has always denied that the site was a reactor or that it worked with North Korea to build nuclear weapons.[3]

North Korean weapons and Hamas. In October 2023 an Associated Press analysis of weapons seized by "Israel", together with South Korean officials and two arms experts, said that Hamas fighters had likely used North Korean F-7 rocket-propelled grenades in the 7 October attack. One expert said that many North Korean weapons have been supplied to armed groups by Iran. The Israeli military declined to say where the grenades came from, and North Korea's KCNA news agency called the claims "a groundless and false rumor" orchestrated by the United States.[4] In January 2024 South Korea's National Intelligence Service said that its assessment was the same as a Voice of America report that Hamas had used a North Korean-made F-7 launcher.[5]

Political statements

In April 2017 the Israeli defence minister, Avigdor Lieberman, called Kim Jong-un a "madman" in an interview. The North Korean foreign ministry replied that anyone who "dares hurt the dignity of its supreme leadership" would face "merciless, thousand-fold punishment", and called "Israel" the "only illegal possessor of nukes in the Middle East, under the patronage of the U.S."[8] In August 2025 the foreign ministry called the Israeli plan to take over Gaza City "a clear act of violating international law", and urged "Israel" to "immediately stop" its attacks on Palestinians and withdraw completely from the Gaza Strip.[6]

Trade

The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics does not list North Korea among its trade partners.[9]

Political interference

UN voting

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea voted in favour of the September 2025 General Assembly resolution endorsing the New York Declaration on a two-state solution.[10]

Ehud Barak's emails

The following items come from the two leaked mailboxes of the former Israeli prime minister and defence minister Ehud Barak (ehbarak1@gmail.com and ehud.barak@hyperion-eb.com, 2007–2016). They were hacked and leaked by Handala, a group that Distributed Denial of Secrets describes as "believed to have ties to Iranian intelligence", and were published by Distributed Denial of Secrets in August 2025. The emails carry no cryptographic signatures, and Distributed Denial of Secrets warns that material from such hack-and-leak operations may have been altered.[11]

  • "NK is now a nuclear player". In April 2015, writing to a business contact about the Iran nuclear framework agreement, Barak said he would send "a piece of interview with Clinton 21yrs ago. He talked of North Korea but exactly the same words. NK is now a nuclear player."[12]

Jeffrey Epstein

In March 2013 Jeffrey Epstein was sent a Wall Street Journal article by Edward Jay Epstein, "How Iran Could Get The Bomb Overnight", which argued that Iran could buy nuclear warheads from North Korea. It said that North Korea had sold a nuclear reactor to Syria that "was destroyed by Israeli bombers in 2007", and cited reports that the Iranian physicist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh had been in North Korea for its third nuclear test.[13] No other substantive references to North Korea were found in the documents released by the US Department of Justice.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Abraham Rabinovich, Israeli-North Korean Fusion The Christian Science Monitor, 19 July 1993, accessed 21 October 2026.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Abraham Setton, A missed opportunity? Ynetnews, 9 April 2007, accessed 21 October 2026.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Oliver Holmes, Israel confirms it carried out 2007 airstrike on Syrian nuclear reactor The Guardian, 21 March 2018, accessed 21 October 2026.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Hyung-jin Kim, Kim Tong-hyung and Jon Gambrell (Associated Press), Evidence Shows Hamas Militants Likely Used Some North Korean Weapons in Attack on Israel The Diplomat, 19 October 2023, accessed 21 October 2026.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Kim Soo-yeon, (LEAD) S. Korea's spy agency confirms Hamas' suspected use of N. Korean weapons Yonhap News Agency, 8 January 2024, accessed 21 October 2026.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Kim Hyun-soo, N. Korea slams Israel's attempt to take over Gaza City as 'clear violation' of int'l law Yonhap News Agency, 12 August 2025, accessed 21 October 2026.
  7. ↑ Israel admits striking suspected Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007 BBC News, 21 March 2018, accessed 21 October 2026.
  8. ↑ North Korea threatens Israel with 'merciless' punishment Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 30 April 2017, accessed 21 October 2026.
  9. ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Foreign Trade Statistics Monthly, Table D1: Trade Countries – Imports and Exports CBS, December 2025 issue (library copy) (Israeli government-side).
  10. ↑ United Nations General Assembly, Recorded vote on A/80/L.1/Rev.1: Endorsement of the New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, 12 September 2025 (copy hosted by Al-Quds Al-Arabi).
  11. ↑ Distributed Denial of Secrets, Ehud Barak emails, 27 August 2025, with download at data.ddosecrets.org, accessed 21 October 2026.
  12. ↑ Email from Ehud Barak, "Re:", 6 April 2015, file ehbarak1@gmail.com/Inbox!19/1 (77).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 21 October 2026.
  13. ↑ Email to Jeffrey Epstein, "Iran's Scariest Option-- my article in WSJ tomorrow", 27 March 2013, EFTA00652454, US Department of Justice, Epstein Files release, Data Set 9, copy at tommycarstensen.com/epstein, accessed 21 October 2026.
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