American Victims of Hamas Attack Plan to Sue North Korea for Providing Weapons

Israeli attorney and human rights activist Nitsana Darshan-Leitner told Voice of America News (VOA) she is representing family members of Americans killed and injured in the October 7 Hamas attack who plan to sue the North Korean government for furnishing the Palestinian terrorists with weapons.

Darshan-Leitner said North Korea “knowingly and intentionally” passes weapons to Iran for distribution to Hamas, so the regimes in both Pyongyang and Tehran are “liable” for the deaths and injuries inflicted on October 7.

In an interview with VOA’s Korean Service recorded on December 27, Darshan-Leitner said she currently represents ten Americans, “including family members who lost their loved ones, as well as U.S. citizens who were injured or who incurred property damage in the attack.” She expected more American victims to join the lawsuit, possibly including hostages presently held prisoner by Hamas after they are released.

“More than 30 Americans, many of them dual U.S.-Israeli citizens, were killed in the attack that initiated the latest round of violence between Hamas and Israel,” VOA noted.

Darshan-Leitner admitted the plaintiffs would face a challenging “burden” to “prove the case,” but she said her team has enlisted “experts who know a lot about North Korea” and how its weapons “wound up in the hands of Hamas.”

Within two weeks of the Hamas attack, South Korean officials and international experts said weapons captured from the terrorists included North Korean F-7 shoulder-fired rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs). 

The F-7 is a popular item among Middle Eastern terrorists and insurgents because it modifies an old Soviet RPG design to make the weapon more devastating against people rather than vehicles. F-7 rocket grenades are marked with a distinctive red stripe to distinguish them from anti-armor weapons.

“North Korea has long supported Palestinian militant groups, and North Korean arms have previously been documented amongst interdicted supplies,” Armament Research Services weapons expert N.R. Jenzen-Jones told the Associated Press (AP) in October.

Hamas itself has published propaganda images of its fighters lugging around North Korean anti-tank missiles, and some of the death squads on October 7 were armed with a North Korean variant of Russia’s famed Kalashnikov assault rifle.

“Many North Korean weapons have been provided by Iran to militant groups, and this is believed to be the primary way by which Palestinian militants have come to possess North Korean weapons,” Jenzen-Jones said, presaging the argument Darshan-Leitner plans to make in her lawsuit.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in November unveiled a stockpile of weapons and vehicles seized from Hamas terrorists, including huge numbers of Kalashnikov rifle variants and RPGs. Many of the weapons were sourced to North Korea.

WATCH — Israel Displays Weapons Used by Hamas Terrorists in October 7 Attacks:

Joel B. Pollak / Breitbart News

A senior Hamas official told a Lebanese news service in November that North Korea is “part of our alliance,” and claimed Pyongyang might be willing to launch nuclear attacks on the United States to protect Hamas.

“Today, all of America’s enemies – or all those shown enmity by the U.S. – are growing closer. Today, Russia contacts us on a daily basis. The Chinese sent envoys to Doha, and China and Russia met with the leaders of Hamas. A Hamas delegation traveled to Moscow, and soon, a delegation will travel to Beijing,” the official said.

VOA noted that suing North Korea for supporting Hamas is theoretically possible, because North Korea has been designated as a state sponsor of terrorism since 2017, and has been sued several times since then. 

In 2018, a D.C. federal court awarded the parents of Otto Warmbier, an American student who died after being kidnapped and held prisoner by the North Korean regime, $500 million in damages. $2.2 million of that award was recouped in October 2023 from frozen funds in a Russian bank account used by North Korea’s national airline, Air Koryo.

VOA’s Korean Service attempted to solicit a statement from North Korea’s mission to the U.N. about the prospective Hamas victims’ lawsuit, but received no response.