One wonders if South Korea’s relations with Israel are all fine from the viewpoint of its security. Observers say since Israel opened its embassy in South Korea in 1964, relations between the two democracies –one in the Middle East and the other in East Asia–have continued to improve. There was a break when Israel closed its embassy in 1978 as part of the budgetary cuts in its Foreign Ministry. But from 1992 onwards, Israeli-South Korean ties resumed at the ambassadorial level. Seoul opened its embassy in Tel Aviv in 1994. In 2014, Reuven Rivlin was the first Israeli president to visit South Korea.

Trade between Jerusalem and Seoul has grown 4.37 per cent annually since 1995. In 2020, Israel exported over $1billion worth of goods and services to South Korea.  The cars comprised roughly 40 per cent of South Korean exports to Israel. In 2021, the total value of goods and services between the two nations surpassed $3.5 billion. In 2022 the two nations concluded a free trade agreement. Besides, there are direct flights– three per week– between Tel Aviv and Seoul today. Also, there is a widespread appreciation of Jewish intellectual achievements in South Korea today. Talmud has become a popular study subject and a part of the curriculum in the South Korean educational system.

However, geostrategic relations between the two nations cannot be said to be as firm as they ought to be between the two democracies. Ever since it came into existence in the post-World War II landscape, South Korea has faced an existential threat from Communist North Korea. Pyongyang has always aimed at dismantling the South and uniting the whole of peninsula under its rule. Seoul has done little to address this threat. It has depended largely on its Mutual Defence Treaty (1953) with the United States. It has treated the presence of US soldiers at the demilitarized zone (DMZ), along the border with North Korea, as its saviour to deter any futuristic military aggression.

The observers say Seoul could turn to Jerusalem and devise a far more appropriate security mechanism. Jerusalem is likely to come along in any such joint venture. North Korea happens to be a common enemy to both Seoul and Jerusalem. The North aims to liquidate both South Korea and Israel. It exports missile technologies to Iran. Tehran, in turn, passes them on its proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah. It is no secret that Iran and all its proxies seek annihilation of Israel.

Relations between North Korea and Hamas are very old. North Korea recognizes Palestinian sovereignty over the entirety of the Israeli territory. During the early years of the Palestine Liberation Organization, North Korea provided financial assistance and military training to its personnel. During the 1970s and 1980s, PLO chief Yasser Arafat would secretly meet then North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung for various types of aid.  Since 2007, North Korea has been supporting Hamas. It supplied  large quantities of weaponry  to Hamas in the Gaza Strip during the Swords of Iron War. Earlier, during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza in 2014, North Korea supplied to Hamas rockets and military communications equipment.

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