Iran and North Korea have a long history of military cooperation and technology exchanges. After Saddam Hussein’s forces invaded Iran in September 1980 with the aim of reversing Iran’s Islamic Revolution of 1979, the new government in Tehran turned to North Korea as an intermediary arms supplier. U.S. policymakers should consider how to adapt sanctions implementation to undercut the hostile coalition of sanctioned nations. Iran’s missile relationship with North Korea is robust—so much so that the Obama administration took the diplomatic risk of sanctioning Tehran for receiving materials from Pyongyang just one day after the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was implemented. "Tension is mounting internationally as the flaws of the nuclear deal are repeatedly uncovered.". Want Fewer Teen Smokers? North Korea will be able to continue its long and profitable relationship with Iran (now also coordinated with the “Iran-China “25-Year Plan”). Asia, Southeast The Swedish Embassy in North Korea is the U.S. protecting power and provides limited consular services to U.S. citizens. The relationship between North Korea and Iran revolves around the export to Iran of thousands of short-to-mid-range missiles over the past 20 to 30 years. Iran–North Korea relations (Korean: 이란-조선민주주의인민공화국 관계; Persian: روابط ایران و کرهی شمالی ) are described as being positive by official news agencies of the two countries. Persia and South Korea have had diplomatic relations since 1962. He wrote this for InsideSources.com. In contemporary diplomacy, there were no relations at all between North Korea and Iran prior to the latter’s revolution in 1979. “North Korea is the seller and Iran is the buyer,” says Bechtol, but that’s not all. The U.S. strike that killed Iran’s top military commander may have had an indirect casualty: a diplomatic solution to denuclearizing North Korea. Report, Trans-Pacific © 2021 Diplomat Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Surely North Korea has come to the same conclusion. George W. Bush, in the first state-of-the-union address of his presidency in January 2002, four months after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon, described an “axis of evil” binding North Korea, Iran and Iraq, then ruled by Saddam Hussein. How Iran and North Korea cooperate in their twin quests to develop better missiles. One of his biggest foreign-policy challenges is to reengage Iran and North Korea, two countries whose regimes have sought political and economic relations with the West for decades. Donald Trump entered the new year facing flare-ups of long-burning crises with two old adversaries – Iran and North Korea – which are directly challenging his claim to … Protests in Tehran may force the government to pull back, to avoid conflict, while Kim focuses on economic issues. With a frenzy of executive orders coming out of the Biden White House, it’s tough…, Mother’s Day is here again. Iran and North Korea cooperated on long-range missile development projects last year, according to a confidential United Nations report that may … The most threatening aspect of North Korea-Iran relations is their active arms trade. But international relations are not logical. Iran is one of the only countries in the world that has a good relationship with both North Korea and South Korea. Us, Write China and Russia have accelerated their coordination on international issues involving Iran and North Korea in the final weeks of this year as the United … Asia, Asia The enduring nature of the Tehran-Pyongyang axis, however, does not mean that a wider war is inevitable in either the Middle East or northeast Asia. The missiles that Iran fired at U.S. bases in Iraq in a show of vengeance for the killing of General Qassem Soleimani would also have been North Korean. But how do these missiles get to Iran? Taking advantage of North Korea’s illicit export regime, according to the Congressional Research Service, “Iran has developed a close working relationship with North Korea on many ballistic missile programs,” providing Iran “a qualitative increase in [ballistic missile] capabilities” and advancing Iran toward its “goal of self-sufficiency in the production of medium-range ballistic missiles.” WikiLeaks’ cables on North Korea’s missile sales to Iran have raised new concerns about the country’s proliferation activities. The strengthening relationship between the DPRK and Iran reveals a dangerous regional strategy that could risk US assets in the Middle East and Asia. North Korea’s nuclear test may further damage nonproliferation efforts, as well as complicate ongoing negotiations with Iran to suspend its nuclear program. They’re the type that Iran also ships to Syria and the anti-Israel groups, Hezbollah and Hamas. North Korea has no embassy in Washington, DC, but it is represented in the United States through its mission to the United Nations in New York. Though North Korea supplied Iran with arms during the Iran-Iraq War, North Korea’s leader Kim Il Sung also reached out to Saddam Hussein to develop ties with Iraq at the time. The relationship between Iran and North Korean proliferation is deep and longstanding. The two also collaborate on nuclear technology originally acquired from Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani nuclear physicist renowned as “father of the Pakistan atomic bomb.” A national hero for his role in arming Pakistan against its historic foe, India, already a nuclear power, A.Q. Defense, China North Korea’s ruling party wants modern military drones for strike and recon missions. Iran has yet to fabricate a nuclear warhead but has had teams of scientists, engineers and technicians on hand in North Korea witnessing all six of the North’s underground nuclear tests, last staged in September 2017, as well as numerous missile tests. That’s assuming such a fearsome weapon really exists. Asia, Pacific August 9, 2018. A detail generally overlooked in all we’ve been reading about the misfired Iranian missile that brought down the Ukraine airliner with 176 people aboard: It was most likely made in North Korea and sold to Iran or made in Iran from a North Korean design and technology. Stop Banning Vapes. North Korea has a legacy of arms exports to countries and non-state actors embroiled in conflict. The air is filled with prose from Hallmark, florists are…, The Difference Between “Fake News” and Local News. Iran began buying Scud-B missiles from North Korea in the mid-1980s for use against Iraq and started the process of acquiring Scud-C missiles soon thereafter, around 1990. View, About The bond between Iran and North Korea confronts the U.S. with a serious question that has yet to come up amid all the speculation about U.S. policy toward both countries. Moreover, North Korea and Iran are operating in fundamentally different geopolitical contexts. Iran-North Korea relations seem to be blossoming amid US sanctions and threats. Donald Kirk is the author of 10 books on Korea, Okinawa, the Philippines and the Vietnam War. Tehran sent representatives to the 1988 Seoul Olympics even as North Korea tried to discredit the games and discourage attendance with extreme efforts, such as conducting terrorist attacks against a South Korean … As Muslim countries, Pakistan and Iran have been on good terms for years. A few may go by boat, eluding capture by the U.S. navy and others committed to stopping the traffic, but the easiest, safest, swiftest route is by air. North Korea in the World is an interactive resource on North Korea’s external relations. Although conventional weapons are an important part of the Iranian–North Korean relationship, what is truly eye-catching is Iran’s purchase of ballistic missile systems over the years. If Kim does have a “strategic new weapon,” however, it’s certain that Iranian and North Korean scientists and engineers are working on it and both sides will have it.