The North Korea - Iran connection. (
JPost).
Former US intelligence officer Bruce Bechtol sheds light on North Korea’s pervasive
involvement in the military buildups of Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas.
Hamas’s attack tunnels in Gaza, Hezbollah’s Scud D missile stockpiles in
southern Lebanon, and the Fordow Iranian nuclear facility, dug into a
mountain, all have one thing in common. None of them would exist in
their current form without North Korea’s assistance and worldwide
weapons proliferation network.
In the early days, when Iran was embroiled in a lengthy and bloody war
with Iraq, North Korea sold it Scud B missiles. “The Iranians instantly
started firing them at Iraq. They then bought artillery, tanks and
trucks – legacy Soviet-made gear from the ’50s and ’60s,” and used them
throughout the Iran-Iraq war, Bechtol said.
Since then, North
Korea has sold Iran Scud Bs, Cs, Ds, extended-range scuds, and played a
crucial role in every step taken by Iran’s domestic missile program.
It helped Iran build the Safir two-stage missile and the Sejil solid
fuel missile, according to Bechtol’s research.
Within the past
two years, at least two long-range missile parts shipments from North
Korea arrived in Iran, he said. Iranian technicians traveled to North
Korea for help in developing an 80-ton rocket booster.
Then, more missile parts arrived in the Islamic Republic in the fall of 2015, he said. Read the full story
here.
