The U.S. government has had evidence of missiles in Cuba—particularly North Korean—for at least two decades.

Mary O’Grady well reminds us of the criminal nature of the Cuban dictatorship, caught smuggling banned missiles and weapons to North Korea through the Panama Canal (“The Castro Brothers Get Caught in the Act,” Americas, July 29). Aside from other important threats Cuba poses to our security, the U.S. government has had evidence of missiles in Cuba—particularly North Korean—for at least two decades.

In 1991, it was reported in the media that U.S. spy satellites had discovered at least one, and possibly several, banned SS-20 missiles in Cuba, a finding that was under top-secret White House scrutiny.

In 2003, David Kay, special adviser on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, publicly stated that evidence had been found in Iraq “of North Korean missiles going to Cuba.” A few days later, Fox News (Oct. 23, 2003) reported that Hwang Jang Yop, former secretary to North Korea’s main decision-making body, the Central Committee, who defected in 1997, had information on “extensive exchanges” of weapons and information between North Korea and Cuba.

* Maria Werlau, Executive Director of CubaArchive.org.

Source: Wall Street Journal