US Intelligence Community (USIC) Claims North Korea Transferred 3 Nuclear War Heads to Iran Last Spring as Both
Feverishly Test ICBM’s to Neutralize US And Israeli Threats. Granted, an Interesting Assertation, But Where’s the Beef?
By Franklin Lamb
Hezbollah’s Security Zone, Beirut
So just how and when did Iran acquire three North Korea nuclear weapons in addition to a suspected ‘dirty bomb’ freebee
for Hezbollah?
It is widely agreed that Pyongyang has dramatically deepened its partnership with Tehran's 'Axis of Resistance.’ This
according to the 16 agency US Intelligence Community as well as some Asian powers. All are said to believe that the
DRNK-IROI partnership seeks the ability to launch nuclear weapons into their perceived enemies. Another recent report
has it that North Korea has been benefiting from technical assistance from Russia and Pakistan and sharing some of it
with Iran while committing about 25 percent of North Korea’s entire gross domestic product to its nuclear weapons
program and much of that to missiles.
It’s likely not the case that either Pyongyang or Tehran is anxious to start a nuclear war which would pulverize both
countries. Rather both seek ‘respect’ as a member of Iran’s Parliament recently explained to this observer. In practical
terms ‘respect’ comes from the ability to launch nuclear weapons globally such that no country is able to challenge
North Korean or Iranian geo-strategic goals, the key pillars of which are a united Korea administered from Pyongyang and a return to “Persian Empire” quality regional hegemony. The Parliamentarian from Tehran did not publicly agree with
my definition of “respect.”
The deliveries of the nuclear warheads have been a while coming. A brief overview:
More than thirteen years ago, in January 2004, the director of North Korea’s Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center
handed an American visitor from Oregon a sealed glass jar tightly packed with plutonium, apparently to convince the
skeptical fellow that his country possessed a nuclear deterrent but only to be used if threatened.
In December 2012, North Korea completed its first successful launch of a long-range ballistic missile, confirming American fears that the so-called hermit kingdom had finally acquired the technology to pose a threat to
American shores. Critically, according to Asian policy experts, “North Korea’s sudden success on December 12th was not the result of good fortune but rather was the fruition of its
increasing instructional cooperation with Iran.”
In 2013, the Washington Free Beacon reported that Iranian missile technicians from the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group traveled to Pyongyang to work on an 80-ton rocket
booster. According to the report, “The booster is believed by U.S. intelligence agencies to be intended for a new long-range
missile or space launch vehicle that could be used to carry nuclear warheads, and could be exported to Iran in the
future.” Were Iran to acquire this technology, its ballistic missile program would be transformed from a regional into a
global threat.
To make the same point last week, Pyongyang lofted a missile 2,800 miles into space and declared it had a nuclear-tipped missile that could destroy much of the
United States so please back off and show us some “respect”. Within 90 minutes, countless Iranian basij and IRGC types
surfaced in Tehran’s central Azadi Square and chanted, what else? “Death to America the Great Satan!”
The Pentagon estimates that the DRNK has approximately 200 launchers able to fire on short notice a variety of short-,
medium- and intermediate-range missiles. According to the Washington Post, citing the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)
Kim’s arsenal likely includes as 80 nuclear weapons. But other IC and Asian intelligence agencies believe his number of
nuclear weapons is likely higher. But as of today, Kim cannot deliver them with the precision he seeks and is
preassembly aware after the first one is fired that his country will largely cease to exist. Ditto Iran.
Iran is currently in negotiations to acquire North Korea’s longest-range ICBM’s to counter Israeli and American threats.
This, as pressure mounts given mixed signals emanating from other nuclear arsenals, which given the right cash
incentive, may well cooperate with the growing number of Iranian detractors, Arabs, and Sunni Muslims globally among
others. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has reportedly rejected DRNK offers to sell Iran older varieties like
the SCUD missile, which have a range of 200 to 600 miles, or the No Dong missile which can reach as far as 800 miles.
Rather, what Iran urgently wants to buy are the Musudan and KN-11, which have a range of approximately 2,000 miles. In
addition, Iran wants Kim Joun Un sell it the intercontinental ballistic missile that was tested successfully twice last
month, the Hwasong-14 and 15 (based on the Soviet Rd-250 missile) which western intelligence agencies including NATO
specialists and Asian allies believe puts Israel in very close “we can’t miss” range.
North Korea also claims that both intercontinental ballistic missiles, the Hwasong-14 and 15, when topped with a
"super-large heavy warhead," can strike the US mainland. The country's state media made the announcement hours after
leader Kim Jong Un last month ordered the launch of the Hwasong-15 missile, which reached the highest altitude ever
recorded by a North Korean missile. State news agency KCNA called its newest missile "the most powerful ICBM" and said
it "meets the goal of the completion of the rocket weaponry system development. After the launch, Kim announced that
North Korea had "finally realized the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force.” The US IC reportedly
agrees that the DRNK has reached a major milestone in its nuclear program by creating a miniaturized nuclear warhead
which the Hwasong-14 and Hwasong-15 can carry and accurately target selected localities.
Any probative evidence of DRNK-IROI partnership to achieve nuclear arsenals?
A few points. With respect to Iran’s continuing involvement with North Korea’s nuclear program, there is growing
speculation based partly on the recent occurrences noted below. U.S. intelligence agencies, according to US Senate
Intelligence sources, have photographs and tapes of scores of Iranian defense officials living for weeks at a time in
Pyongyang. It is suspected that these Iranian visitors along with their hosts are jointly working on nuclear
technological advances. These increasing contacts are cause for alarm according to a Senate Intelligence Committee
because they suggest that Iran is indeed racing to develop nuclear weapons-- but mainly inside Korea not in Iran-- due
to UN oversight of Iran.
According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), it was back in the late 2000s, the CIA intensified its monitoring of North Korean cooperation with Iran’s ballistic
missile programs labeling them, “ongoing and significant.” The CRS concluded that while Iran had likely exceeded North Korea’s ability to develop, test, and build ballistic
missiles, Tehran still relies, despite its denials, on Pyongyang for certain materials for producing Iranian ballistic
missiles despite Iran’s denials.
Retired Adm. James Stavridis, a former NATO supreme allied commander, in an interview on 12/17/2017, argued to AM 970
Radio host John Catsimtidis in New York that “North Korea is likely receiving outside help from Iran as it races to
develop its weapons arsenal, given how fast it's moving. "There is also much cooperation between Iran and North Korea,
which we know has occurred in this nuclear warhead race."
The three DRNK Nuclear warheads and the ‘dirty bomb’ deliveries to Iran allegedly took place during the Spring of 2017.
They were transported under heavy guard from Pyongyang’s Sunan International Airport on four separate North Korean regularly scheduled passenger flights of its Air Koryo airline to Iran Air at Russia’s
Vladivostok airport in Russia. Whether anyone in Russa knew what the cargo bays held is weak speculation. The U.S.
Treasury Department had sanctioned Air Koryo in December 2016 for financially aiding the Kim regime and its ballistic
missile program. According to the IC, the Nuclear warheads were then forwarded to Tehran via Russia’s state carrier,
Aeroflot, flying through Chinese airspace. All events being egregious violation of U.N. sanctions that prohibited Iran
at the time from “any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons,” and North Korea from “exporting nuclear and missile technology.”
After the claimed nuclear warheads transfer, reports have documented that both countries have increased the holding of
“high-level meetings,” to expand the “depth” of their military ties and exploring further “military cooperation.” This
August, Kim reiterated his support for working with Iran, stating, “Iran and North Korea share a mutual enemy, the
United States. We firmly support Iran on its (Iran’s) stance on missile development.”
Mr. Daniel Coats, US Director of National Intelligence testified before Congress on 5/11/2017, shortly after the claimed
nuclear transfer, that “North Korea’s export of ballistic missiles and associated materials to Iran and Syria, and its assistance to Syria’s
construction of a nuclear reactor, destroyed in 2007, illustrate its willingness to proliferate dangerous technologies.”
Not long after, Iran’s President Rouhani threatened that Tehran could restart its nuclear program within a matter of hours. His statement was chimed in with the IRGC claim that it may “expand and continue with more
speed” its ballistic missile program. Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran´s Supreme Leader, claims to have earlier set the maximum range of the Iran’s missiles as 2000 kilometers. This
includes Israel as part of the Middle East region where Iran’s perceived enemies are located, including American
military bases.
Several of the 16-member US Intelligence agencies allege that senior Iranian regime officials have been flooding into
North Korea to observe its six nuclear warhead tests. Chief among these officials, is Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, an Iranian
general whom the UN has accused of working closely with Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani on secret nuclear weapons research.
Current and former U.S. intelligence officials say these accusations cannot be ruled out, so all known contacts between
the two regimes need to be scrutinized closely.
Many of the increasing numbers of North Koreans visiting Iran are from defense industries or secretive financial bodies
that report directly to Kim Jong-un, including Offices 39 and 99 of the ruling Workers' Party of North Korea.
In late 2016 U.S. authorities reported that missile technicians from one of Iran's largest defense companies, the Shahid
Hemmat Industrial Group, had traveled to North Korea to help develop an eighty-ton rocket booster for ballistic
missiles. One of the company's top officials, Sayyed Javad Musavi, has allegedly worked in tandem with the Korea Mining
Development Trading Corp. (KOMID), which the United States and UN have sanctioned for being a central player in
procuring equipment for Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. For example, Shahid Hemmat is claimed to
have illegally shipped valves, electronics, and measuring equipment to KOMID for use in ground testing of space-launch
vehicles and liquid-propellant ballistic missiles.
Early last August, Kim Yong-nam, North Korea's number two political leader and head of its legislature, flew from
Pyongyang to Tehran supposedly for a few days to attend the inauguration of President Hassan Rouhani What alarmed
Washington and NATO was the length of Kim Yong-nam’s visit. North Korean state media claimed he was only in Iran for
three days, but Iranian state media claimed two weeks, and that Kim was accompanied by a large delegation of Korean
scientists. Kim had last visited Tehran in 2012 to attend the Non-Aligned Movement Conference. But did not attend the
events associated with that conference, instead focusing on signing a bilateral scientific cooperation agreement with
Iran’s then President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. According to U.S. intelligence officials, that agreement was identical to
the one Pyongyang inked with Syria in 2002. Israel bombed a building in eastern Syria that the United States and UN
believe was a nearly operational North Korean-built nuclear reactor for Iran’s use. One of the Iranian officials who
attended the 2012 gathering with Kim was Atomic Energy Organization chief Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, who was sanctioned by
Washington and the UN for his alleged role in nuclear weapons development. Kim also held a string of bilateral meetings
with foreign leaders, many from countries that have been significant buyers of North Korean weapons in recent decades,
including Zimbabwe, Cuba, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Namibia.
This past September at the request of the CIA and key Congressional leaders, the White House ordered an urgent intensive
search for any potential North Korea-Iran bilateral nuclear collaboration. This is years after officials in Washington,
Asia, and the Middle East who track the relationship indicate that Pyongyang and Tehran already announced plans to
jointly develop their ballistic missile systems and other military/scientific programs.
Certain DRNK-IROI meetings that have gone unreported in state media are of even more concern to Washington and its
allies. even more worrisome for allied governments. U.S. and South Korean intelligence have documented a study and
increasing number of Iranian and North Korean officials visiting each other seeking to jointly develop their nuclear
arsenal and ICBM delivery systems as quickly as possible.
Over the same period, U.S. intelligence agencies have spotted dozens of Iranian defense officials spending weeks at a
time in Pyongyang, raising the specter that they are sharing nuclear technological advances with each other. "All of
these contacts need to be better understood” a Senate Intelligence Committee staffer opined that Iran is indeed reaching
to develop nuclear weapons, but in Korea not in Iran due to NATO and UN oversight in the IROI.
North Korea has become a critical partner in Iran’s “Axis of Resistance," which Tehran developed to replace US influence
in the Middle East. Pyongyang is also Iran’s main arms partner in Syria as an important supplier of arms and equipment to Iran's most important Arab ally, Syria's Assad regime. According to current and former U.S. officials, Iranian
funded Houthi have also been supplied with weapons from North Korea as it seeks to replace the current government in
Yemen.
Several of the 16-member US Intelligence agencies allege that senior Iranian regime officials have frequently visited
North Korea to observe and discuss with their counterparts, its six recent nuclear weapons tests. Chief among these
officials, is Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, an Iranian general whom the UN has accused of working closely with Fereydoun
Abbasi-Davani on secret nuclear weapons research. Current and former U.S. intelligence officials say these accusations
cannot be ruled out, so all known contacts between the two regimes need to be scrutinized closely.
Meanwhile, this week, Mark S. Kirk, a former U.S. senator from Illinois, has joined in a new campaign by the pro-Israel
group, United Against Nuclear Iran and is urging President Trump, whose ear he is said to have, to get tough with Iran and North Korea. Kirk and his friends are arguing to the White House and Congress that both must follow through on Trump’s promise to impose further sanctions on those found to have helped Iran and
North Korea share military technology. According to United Against a Nuclear Iran, the administration must also order the Pentagon to intercept and destroy ICBMs fired from either country in the
direction of the U.S. or our allies in the Western Hemisphere.
Wrote Kirk recently, “It’s time for America to show that our rhetoric in response to rogue states is matched with concrete action.”