The massive, well-coordinated attacks of Palestine’s Hamas militant group earlier this month dealt a stunning blow to the prestige of Israel’s intelligence establishment, which failed to anticipate the operation.

But there was another political casualty of Hamas’ surprise operation — the already crumbling authority of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah party — and the ambivalent situation that has resulted may be one of the reasons why North Korea’s initial reaction to the fighting was more muted than expected.

Pyongyang has traditionally backed the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), but ever since Hamas started