Frontline Pakistan : The Struggle With Militant Islam - Arz-e-Pak

Rogue in the Ranks
State, Richard Armitage, all but named Dr Khan, when he expressed
concerns that ‘people who were employed by the nuclear agency
and have retired’ might be spreading nuclear technology to North
Korea. 22
During his visit to Islamabad in the summer of 2002, the US Secretary
of State, Colin Powell, was said to have asked President Musharraf
to arrest Dr Khan for questioning over the alleged secret trading of
Pakistan’s nuclear technology to North Korea. He also offered US
assistance in investigating into the matter. 23 Musharraf had already
sidelined Dr Khan, but he was not prepared to take that extreme step
against the country’s most revered personality, largely because of fear
of a public backlash. Musharraf later told the New York Times that
he had suspected for at least three years that Dr Khan was sharing
nuclear technology with other countries, but argued that the USA had
not given him convincing proof.
Pakistan’s link with the North Korean nuclear programme, however,
ran much deeper and was much more complicated. The defence
cooperation between the two nations started in 1994, when Prime
Minister Benazir Bhutto visited Pyongyang to negotiate a missile deal
with the North Korean leaders. Benazir Bhutto’s father, Pakistan’s
former Prime Minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, had had a lasting friendship
with the founder of the North Korean communist regime, Kim Il Sung.
There was huge respect for the daughter of Pakistan’s first elected
leader. She was persuaded by the military leadership to go and see the
North Korean leader, Kim Jong. Pakistan desperately needed a nuclear
missile system at that point to counter India’s threat; US sanctions on
military hardware sales had also fuelled the urgency of this need.
Benazir Bhutto denied that Pakistan had traded nuclear technology
for the missiles. But there was huge scepticism over whether Pakistan,
with its economy in a slump, would have enough money to pay the
North Koreans. Benazir Bhutto has often said that the USA conspired
in the ousting of her second government because of the missile deal
with North Korea. 24
Nonetheless, the deal provided Dr Khan with an opportunity to
make a breakthrough with the North Koreans. He visited North Korea
13 times over the next seven years. During those visits, Pyongyang
offered to exchange centrifuge equipment for its missile technology,
enabling Pakistan to extend the reach of its nuclear weapon deep
inside India. North Korean scientists received nuclear briefings at
KRL, although even top Pakistani civilian leaders were not allowed
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