An Unsettling Report on Iran and North Korea

New York Times – This article published in the New York Times, cites the Iranian Resistance’s new revelation on a malign cooperation between the Iranian regime and the N. Korea on ballistic missile program as well as nuclear proliferation. The writer says as the clock ticks down to a June 30 deadline for a nuclear deal with Iran, the news has emerged that North Korean nuclear and missile experts may have visited a military site near Tehran last month.
If the report from an Iranian resistance group via Reuters is true, the timing could hardly be worse, at least optically. This is a moment when Iran needs to be doing its best to prove its good intentions to the international community, not flaunting ties to a country with an active nuclear weapons program and a record of threatening behavior.
The nuclear agreement being negotiated between Iran and the major powers – the United States, China, Britain, France, Russia and Germany – is already highly controversial. If Iran’s top leaders really want a deal, which would lift international sanctions in return for curbs on their nuclear program; it is counter-productive to give the opponents more ammunition that could thwart that goal.
In February, a report from the United States intelligence community noted, as intelligence officials have in the past, North Korea’s “export of ballistic missiles and associated materials to several countries, including Iran and Syria.”
Such cooperation would belie Tehran’s insistence that it is not pursuing a nuclear weapon and would necessarily blow up any nuclear agreement. But even if a nuclear deal is reached, the major powers will need to watch vigilantly to make sure that Iran doesn’t switch from developing the technology that could enable it to produce a bomb to buying one from North Korea.