Dangerous NK-Iran ties spark tougher sanctions

By Kang Hyun-kyung

The possibility of terrorist groups obtaining nuclear weapons via North Korea or Iran or both has led the United States to insist that South Korea join the global coalition to toughen sanctions on the two, according to security experts.

If the worst-case scenario becomes a reality, they warned it will be a disastrous result for not only the security of East Asia, but also that of the Middle East.

Washington has been deeply concerned about the alleged nuclear cooperation between Iran and North Korea.

“North Korea obtained its weapons-grade nuclear material by reprocessing spent fuel, while Iran is enriching uranium that can be refined to the level of weapons grade,” Lt. General Robert G. Gard Jr., chairman of the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation, told The Korea Times.

Iran incurred the fourth set of U.S. Security Council (UNSC) sanctions in June after it refused to halt its nuclear program by insisting that it only aims to use the nuclear technology peacefully.

So far, the UNSC, the United States and the European Union have adopted a set of additional measures against Iran for its nuclear ambition.

In July, Iran said it holds more than 44 pounds of uranium enriched to 20 percent, far below the level of 90 percent that is needed to produce a nuclear bomb.

Iran claimed that it has the right to use nuclear energy peacefully under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

“Since North Korea is much further along with its nuclear program than Iran, it seems logical that North Korea would offer to sell a wide spectrum of technical nuclear assistance to Iran,” said Gard.

Both Iran and North Korea denied their nuclear technology nexus.

Oil-for-nuke deal?

Siegfried S. Hecker, professor of the Management Science and Engineering Department at Stanford University who has visited North Korea six times since 2005, raised the possibility of an oil-for-nuclear deal between the two.

“Iran has money and oil, just what Pyongyang needs most,” the nuclear scientist said in his article published in the March 2007 edition of Arms Control Today. “Pyongyang has front-end fuel-cycle capabilities that could aid most of Iran’s uranium-enrichment activities from mining through the production of uranium hexafluoride. It has hands-on experience in uranium metallurgy that would prove useful in the fabrication of highly enriched uranium weapons.”

In January 2007, a media report confirmed nuclear cooperation between Iran and North Korea.

Citing a senior European defense official, The Daily Telegraph reported that North Korea had invited a team of Iranian nuclear scientists to study the results of their first underground nuclear test in 2006 to assist Iran in preparations to conduct its own.

North Korea’s technical superiority will allow the Iranians to accelerate the development of their nuclear weapons, the official was quoted as saying.

“The cooperation between the two countries in missile technology is more obvious,” said Gard.

“Officials in the U.S. Department of State have concluded that North Korea has sold materials and provided Iran with technical advice on the development of ballistic missiles.”

A North Korean defector, a former scientist working with North Korea’s ballistic missile program, was quoted by the International Crisis Group in its report that 10-20 North Korean scientists and aerospace engineers have maintained a continuous presence in Iran since the 1980s.

Nukes in the hands of terrorists

If nuclear weapons or fissile materials are handed over to terrorists via or by Iran or North Korea or both, experts say it will pose a grave threat to international security.

The worst-case scenario appears to be probable, given the previous records of the arms trade between North Korea and Iran and terrorist groups.

Iran has been on the U.S. State Department’s list of terrorism sponsors since 1984 and was described as the most significant state sponsor.

Earlier this month, Stuart Levey, undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the U.S. Treasury Department, said in an interview that “Iran provides weapons, funding, logistics and training to the Taliban.”

According to WikiLeaks, North Korea signed a deal with al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden’s financial advisor for remote-controlled rockets to use against American and coalition aircraft in November, 2005.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers reportedly acquired North Korean arms in the past. Rumors have it that Mexican drug cartels have also obtained similar weapons.

In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Paul Wolfowitz, former deputy U.S. secretary of defense, warned of the “likelihood that nuclear weapons could end up in the hands of irresponsible rulers or terrorists who can’t be deterred at all.”

Earlier, Professor Hecker expressed a similar view at the hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations in 2008.

“The greatest threats we face today are a breakdown of the nonproliferation regime and the possibility that terrorists may acquire nuclear weapons or fissile materials.”