448 723 FEDERAL SUPPLEMENT, 2d SERIES alliance among the three parties.’’ (Trial Transcript, Dec. 2, 2009, ln. 2–18) Given North Korea’s ideology and aims, it is thus not surprising that North Korea concluded that using terrorist groups as proxies could effectively magnify its influence in the Middle East. As a practical matter, North Korea was well-positioned to extend material support to terrorist groups; it carried with it the benefits and the resources of a nation-state sponsor, including financial assistance, military training, operational cover and safe harbor. It was not long before North Korea set up and operated terrorist training camps (a large proportion of which were Palestinian) in which over the years thousands of terrorists were trained. (Trial Transcript, Dec. 2, 2009, ln. 15) These training camps provided comprehensive instruction on weapons use, bomb-making, kidnapping, assassination, propaganda, and guerrilla warfare. (Exhibit No. 6, ¶ 34) North Korea also supplied Palestinian terrorist groups with a wide variety of armaments. The PFLP, a Palestinian terrorist organization with a communist ideology, was an ideal match for the North Korean regime, given that, as explained above, North Korea was already seeking to spread its own communist revolutionary aspirations via proxies throughout the Middle East. In fact, North Korea was an important enough sponsor of the PFLP that, in September 1970, the notorious PFLP terrorist leader George Habash (‘‘Habash’’) himself visited Pyongyang,8 the capital of North Korea, personally to seek 8. Habash was received ‘‘lavishly TTT as a hero, great leader, as an important figure.’’ (Trial Transcript, Dec. 2, 2009, p. 56, ln. 20) 9. North Korean support for the Palestinian cause was also demonstrated in a telegram sent by Kim Il Sung to Yassir Arafat, chairman of the PLO (The Pyongyang Times, May an increase in material support for his organization and to discuss possible collaboration with the JRA in future terror attacks. (Trial Transcript, Dec. 2, 2009, p. 56, ln. 10 and Exhibit No. 6, ¶ 34) Although the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (‘‘PLO’’) main branch, al-Fatah, received support from countries like China, the Soviet Union and Arab states, the PLO’s poorer cousin, the PFLP, was forced to seek sponsorship from less prominent and wealthy ‘‘second—and third-tier’’ countries such as North Korea. Habash’s visit was much feted in the state-controlled North Korean media.9 (Exhibit No. 36, ¶ 6) Prof. Rubin explained that this visit and North Korean media reports demonstrated North Korea’s increasing influence in promoting terrorist groups at this time, because the North Korea media was strictly controlled by its government and reflected its policies. As explained by Prof. Rubin, ‘‘[s]ince every action is an official action approved by the intelligence, military and the high leadership of North Korea, then we know that these are official actions.’’ (Trial Transcript, Dec. 2, 2009, p. 65, ln. 7–10) It is especially telling that the North Koreans warmly welcomed Habash even though the PFLP already had been involved in attacks on Israeli targets, including the bombing a few months prior of a Swiss Air plane headed to Israel, killing 47 passengers. (Exhibit No. 3, ¶ 34) Moreover, during Habash’s visit to North Korea, several PFLP operatives hijacked four western passenger planes, took three of the airliners to Jordan and blew them up. Prof. Rubin stated that ‘‘for Habash to leave the 18, 1970): ‘‘The Korean people express full support to and firm solidarity with the just struggle of the Palestinian people who are valiantly fighting in arms to smash U.S. imperialism and the Israeli aggressors, its stooges, and to liberate their fatherland.’’ (Exhibit No. 6, ¶ 36)