A senior Israeli diplomat warned this week that Israel would not remain passive if Syria’s new leadership seeks to renew cooperation with North Korea on weapons of mass destruction.
“Israel will not stand idly by if it becomes clear that the new regime in Damascus is attempting to reestablish ties with North Korea in the area of non-conventional weapons,” Aviv Ezra, deputy director general for Asia and the Pacific at Israel’s Foreign Ministry, said in an interview with NK News during the Shangri-La Dialogue security summit in Singapore.
Ezra said Israel would act “through kinetic and non-kinetic means” to prevent North Korea from continuing to contribute to the proliferation of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons in the Middle East.
His remarks follow the ousting of longtime Syrian President Bashar Assad in December and the rise of a new government led by Ahmad al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani. The new leadership has been seeking regional and international legitimacy.
Ezra said Israel currently has no indication that Syria’s new government intends to renew military or weapons cooperation with Pyongyang, but cautioned that any such effort would cross a “red line.”
During Assad’s rule, Syria and North Korea collaborated on sensitive military projects, including a nuclear reactor that was destroyed in a 2007 airstrike widely attributed to Israel. Ezra confirmed Israeli involvement in the operation for the first time.
“We know that we’ve acted in the past to remove that threat,” he said.
Though North Korea’s diplomatic mission left Damascus after Assad’s fall, various reports indicate that Syria’s new government still maintains a diplomatic presence in Pyongyang. Ezra noted that while diplomatic ties alone do not justify military action, they are significant in the broader “battle for public perception.”
Ezra also expressed concern over continued cooperation between Iran and North Korea on missile and weapons programs, calling it a “real threat to regional stability.”
“The coalition on the other side is consistently working to strengthen this cooperation,” he said. “There are other players involved as well.”
A senior North Korean delegation visited Tehran in April—the first such visit in five years. While Iranian officials said the trip was strictly economic, Israeli officials view it as part of a broader and troubling pattern.
“We are expressing our concerns to many countries,” Ezra said. “This does not contribute to stability, in any way.”
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Ezra also warned against any U.S. move to recognize North Korea as a de facto nuclear state, saying such recognition would send a dangerous message—particularly in light of Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
“If a policy of appeasement and acceptance of nuclear capability is adopted, that’s not a positive signal—not to Iran, and not to the region,” he said. “We will not stand aside. We will take an active stance.”
While Israel supports diplomatic solutions, Ezra said it rejects strategies that defer problems rather than solve them.
“We’re not in favor of messages that say, ‘let’s kick the can down the road,’” he said. “That’s what was done with North Korea in the 1990s and 2000s—and now we see the result.”