Daily Alert Archives

Iran's Sequel to North Korea's Nuclear Playbook

(Foundation for Defense of Democracies) Claudia Rosett - North Korea offers Iran a prime example of how a rogue state can parlay nuclear climbdown deals into time and opportunity to cheat - reaping benefits while still working toward nuclear weapons. Having cheated its way through a series of deals going all the way back to the nuclear freeze of the 1994 Agreed Framework under President Clinton, North Korean tyrant Kim Jong Un appears to be honing his nuclear weapons program. Since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, North Korea has been one of Iran's closest allies. At the UN General Assembly just last week, a North Korean diplomat called Israel a "cancer" in the Middle East - reading from Iran's diplomatic script. Given North Korea's long entanglement with Iran, U.S. negotiators need to recognize that Iran's nuclear projects may not stop at Iran's borders. In 1985 Iran's new president Hassan Rouhani began a six-year stint as Commander of Iran's Air Defense Force; during that same period, North Korea began supplying Iran with weapons, including knock-offs of Soviet Scud missiles. The writer is journalist-in-residence with the FDD.
2013-10-08 00:00:00
Full Article