Pakistan purchased 200 missiles from North Korea in 1999, according to Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, known as the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb. Khan made the remarks in a recent TV interview in Pakistan, saying at the time Pakistan was eager to have missiles capable of shooting down aircraft.

According to a translation of his remarks released by the U.S. director of National Intelligence's Open Source Center, then Pakistani army chief of staff Pervez Musharraf sent Khan and a senior Air Force officer to North Korea to purchase missiles from the Stalinist country.

Khan implied that his first visit to the North in 1994 to discuss missile technology paved the way for the two countries to begin a close relationship.

Pakistan's missile development program kicked off when then-prime minister Benazir Bhutto gave about US$50 million to North Korean officials who were visiting Pakistan following Khan's visit to the North.

With regard to a suspected "nucl ear connection" between North Korea and Pakistan, Khan said North Korean engineers visited nuclear facilities in Pakistan in the mid-1990s. But he denied that he himself had passed nuclear technology to the North in return for missile technology. "Nuclear technology cannot be learned by visiting a nuclear site and observing a few machines," he said.