Shortly After July 5, 2002: US-Built Plane Ships Nuclear Missile Parts from North Korea to Pakistan

A US-built C-130 transport aircraft belonging to the Pakistani air force collects parts for nuclear missiles in North Korea and carries them back to Pakistan. The flight is tracked by US intelligence, as are several similar flights around this time. According to the New York Times, “It was part of the military force that President Pervez Musharraf had told President Bush last year would be devoted to hunting down the terrorists of al-Qaeda, one reason the administration was hailing its new cooperation with a country that only a year before it had labeled a rogue state.” [New York Times, 11/24/2002; Levy and Scott-Clark, 2007, pp. 337]