This is pretty much a non-story despite the media headlines:

North Korea purchased an undetermined number of U.S.-made portable anti-aircraft missiles from Afghanistan in the early 1990s when the Soviet Union-backed Najibullah regime collapsed, according to a U.S. congressional report.

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) report, dated August 8, referenced articles from the New York Times and the Washington Post. [Yonhap]

It has been well known for quite sometime that the Stinger missile had been acquired by North Korea from stockpile of Stinger missiles sent to Afghanistan as testament from a report released in 1999:

Stingers inevitably turned up for sale on the international black market. Alan Kuperman, author of a history of the Stinger transfer published in 1999 in Political Science Quarterly, puts the United Arab Emirates, Somalia, Iraq, Qatar, Zambia, and North Korea among the nations to acquire the Stinger. They are also believed to be in the arsenal of anti-government guerrillas in Turkey and Sri Lanka, as well as Hezbollah guerrillas operating in Lebanon. In 1990, two Colombian drug dealers were arrested in Tampa, Fla., after attempting to arrange the purchase of Stingers for the Medellín Cartel. The following year, U.S. Customs agents in Miami arrested four men and charged them with attempting to smuggle Stingers and other weapons to Yugoslavia. [Global Security.org]

It is really no big deal that the North Koreans have a Stinger from Afghanistan because those missiles are old and have a shelf life that have far exceeded their effective use today.  That is why when the US initiated operations in Afghanistan in 2001 you had all the spectacular reports from the media about the Stingers the mujahideen that would shoot down US aircraft.  We now know the media sensationalism was unwarranted because the US has not had one aircraft shot down by a Stinger missile and that is because of the shelf life issue.

Additionally threat countries can readily purchase much better shoulder fired missiles then the old Stingers sent to Afghanistan.  I would actually prefer threat countries to try and fire old Stingers at US aircraft because it would be sheer luck if they hit anything.

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