Thursday, July 20, 2006
Iran and the Norks: Not even being subtle about it
Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the extremely professional and impressive front man in our dealings with North Korea, today accused Iran of having sent advisors to attend North Korea's infamous missile tests earlier this month. Reuters:
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Chris Hill said one or more Iranian representatives witnessed July 4 missile tests in North Korea, which experts say is a key partner in Iran's missile programme.
Washington says the two have collaborated and has expressed concern cash-strapped Pyongyang could sell missiles and possibly atomic material. Experts say Iran's Shahab 3 missile has a 2,000 km (1,240 miles) range and is based on a North Korean design.
Asked at a U.S. Senate hearing about reports Iranians witnessed the North Korean tests, Hill said: "Yes, that is my understanding." It was "absolutely correct" the relationship was worrisome, said Hill, also chief U.S. negotiator with Pyongyang.
There is no particularly "new news" in this report, insofar as that the United States has argued that Iran was buying missile technology from North Korea for quite some time. However, it is fascinating that Iran would be brazen enough to have its representatives physically present at such a public and inflammatory event as the July 4 missile test. Obviously Tehran is so disrespectful of its own cover story -- that its nuclear program is purely to generate electricity -- that it no longer sees any need even to be coy.
It is also interesting to wonder how it was that we learned that Iranians were at the test. Does this mean that the United States has intelligence assets inside the North Korean missile program? Probably not, but it may be that the South Koreans, Japanese or even the Chinese do, and that they fed the news back to the CIA.
2 Comments:
By 
Dawnfire82, at
Thu Jul 20, 07:10:00 PM:
That was true with the Soviet Union as well. So the CIA and SIS didn't bother with informal contacts... they went with generals and colonels, ambassadors, intelligence professionals, party officials, and so forth, and were extremely successful. Communist states tend to have massive bureacracies chock full of disaffected people ready for exploitation. It's just a matter of finding one who's both ready to be used and knows something that you care about.
Of course, it's also possible that there was a Chinese representative at the launch as well who said, "hey, there were Iranians there."
By 
, at
Fri Aug 11, 01:59:00 PM:
This is a storm all right... an atomic winter storm! If the Iranian feudal religious oligarchy gets the bomb the world will be in for.... I can't even imagine! If you can read Professor Bernard Lewis's article in the Wall Street Journal earlier this week. Where are the sane Iranians??
