[imText1]A British press reports that North Korea is helping Iran prepare for an underground nuclear experiment, but how valid is this statement.
A senior European defense official told Britain’s the Daily Telegraph that an agreement had been made between North Korea and Iran for nuclear co-operation. It seems that North Korea has agreed to share all its data and information with Iranian nuclear scientists gathered from its successful nuclear test last year, the report claimed.
On the other hand, Paul Kerr a research analyst at the Arms Control Association (ACA) said in an interview with Radio Free Asia (RFA) on the 24th, that the nuclear programs developed by the two countries maintained different characteristics and questioned the credibility of the report.
Researcher Kerr said “I don’t know if Iran has a nuclear weapons program or not. But if it does, that program is using highly enriched uranium for the explosive material. North Korea’s program is based on plutonium. So it’s unclear how much Iran could use whatever information they got from North Korea.”
He remarked that the Iran government even acknowledged that Iran and North Korea had made ties in the past regarding missiles and technology, but said that a claim like this, that the two countries were cooperating, sharing their skills on nuclear weapons was an issue on a totally different scale.
[imText2]Researcher Kerr also outlined that there was no fundamental evidence to support that North Korea and Iran were disclosing their nuclear technology to each other. Though the report based its claim on a senior European defense official, he indicated that the identity of the source had not been revealed and that at present the two countries were not displaying any particular indications to support the alleged claim.
On the other hand, a nuclear expert Professor Charles Ferguson of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations analyzed that there was a possibility that nuclear technology had already been transferred as North Korea had already established cooperative military networks with countries such as Iran and Syria and was recognized as a proliferate state who traded cruise missiles.
Professor Ferguson continued to say that if the report was true, North Korea would have violated an agreement which prohibited the transfer of technology and materials related to nuclear weapons. As a result, the U.S. and the international community would probably counteract with additional sanctions against North Korea and Iran and the 6 party talks would be hit with a negative blow.
At the daily press conference, Sean McCormack, spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State said regarding the report “I couldn’t comment… that would get into intelligence information… and that’s not something that I could discuss” but did mention that the two countries had shown cooperation on missile programs in the past, and said “Whether that cooperation has extended into other areas, I don’t have any information for you.”
The AFP also reported that Condoleezza Rice, U.S. Secretary of State expressed reservation to the claim stating that she had not either directly heard or seen any fundamental evidence on the issue.
In one sense, the two countries have maintained a cooperative relationship regarding missiles since the 1980’s with North Korea acquiring scuds and missiles from Iran.
The missile shahab-3 with a firing range of 1,300km was based on North Korea’s Nodong missile and the shahab-4 (firing range of 2,000~2,500km), in which Iran declared its firing power in Sept 2004 also models the Taepodong-1.
Nonetheless, following North Korea’s missile launch last July, Iranian military officials were known to have visited North Korea.
