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President Trump is looking for ways to put a squeeze on North Korea that will persuade it to give up nuclear weapons and the missiles to carry them. He hopes China will change its policy of tolerating Pyongyangs military programs in order to avoid a crisis on its border.

But unnamed Pentagon officials say there is another collaborator with North Korea that appears to be helping it survive: Iran. If the evidence they cite in interviews with Fox News is corroborated, Mr. Trump will have to face the need to deal with two problems at once: North Koreas active development of nuclear weapons and missiles and Irans use of North Korean technology to improve its own military might.

According to a report by Fox, Pentagon officials say Iran recently tried to launch a cruise missile from a small submarine designed by North Korea and has repeatedly tested liquid-fueled intermediate range missiles of a North Korean design.

The officials pointed out that only Iran and North Korea operate so-called Yono-class midget submarines that run on battery power in shallow waters and are very difficult to detect. Iran operates them in the Persian Gulf, where they are a threat to U.S. Navy ships.

Also, last summer Iran flight-tested a missile identical in design to North Koreas Musudan intermediate range missile.

According to Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California, the evidence of collaboration between North Korea and Iran is ample and of long standing.

The very first missiles we saw in Iran were simply copies of North Korean missiles, he told Fox News. Over the years, weve seen photographs of North Korean and Iranian officials in each others countries, and weve seen all kinds of common hardware.

It has been 15 years since President George W. Bush stirred controversy by labeling Iraq, Iran and North Korea as members of an Axis of Evil. Iraq is no longer developing or pretending to develop weapons of mass destruction, but both Iran and North Korea have had another 15 years in which to pursue weapons to threaten their regions and the United States. For more than half of that time, during President Barack Obamas administration, official U.S. policy sought to woo Iran into a more peaceful posture.

But Irans continued aggressive behavior in the Persian Gulf and its interventions in the Middle East, as well as its continued efforts to develop missiles, show no sign of abating. And North Korea has solidified its nuclear forces and is working on designing solid-fuel missiles that are much more easily concealed and dangerous than its current, liquid-fueled missile arsenal, as well as nuclear warheads that are small enough for missile delivery.

True, President Obama got Tehran to agree to reduce its stock of enriched uranium and put its uranium enrichment program under international inspection for at least 10 years in exchange for lifting sanctions and freeing up impounded assets. But the agreement is a weak one if Tehran is simply paying Pyongyang to do the design work for missiles and warheads it will be able to field rapidly when the agreement runs it course.

And if Iran is paying North Korea for help, then the sanctions that President Trump is counting on to force change in North Korea are also being fatally undermined.

See the article here:
The Iran-North Korea link - Charleston Post Courier