SEOUL — North Korea and Iran, two fiercely anti-American regimes, appear to be bolstering their military and diplomatic cooperation, including the possible sale of missiles to the Tehran government, intelligence sources said.
An Iranian parliamentary delegation visiting Pyongyang was given a VIP welcome with a reception Monday at the North Korean Supreme People's Assembly to celebrate, as the North Korean news service put it, the "friendly and cooperative relations growing strong in various fields" between the two countries.
Israeli intelligence believes North Korea recently sold 18 intermediate-range missiles to Tehran. Some accounts also place Iranian observers in North Korea when the Pyongyang regime test-fired seven missiles over the Sea of Japan this month.
"The Iranians are looking to North Korea for their new designs," said Uzi Rubin, a former head of the Israeli missile defense program. "Of course, we are worried. Whatever North Korea makes eventually ends up in the Middle East."
Rubin says Iran is particularly interested in North Korea's multistage missile, the Taepodong, because it can be used to launch a satellite. The missile was one of the seven test-fired recently, but it failed after 42 seconds, splashing into the sea not far from the test site.
Another missile that Rubin believes might have been among those tested was an intermediate-range missile based on an old Soviet design for a submarine-launched nuclear missile. These newly manufactured missiles are estimated to have a range of 1,550 miles, which would enable them to reach Israel and much of southern Europe from Iran.
Israeli intelligence chief Amos Yadlin said in April that Israel had evidence that the North Koreans had shipped 18 of these missiles -- known alternately as the SS-N-6 or the BM-25 -- to an Iranian missile base at the port city of Bandar Abbas.
"What the Iranians bought was a missile in a box. It is an unproven missile," said Israeli defense analyst Alon Ben-David, who said there was great curiosity about whether the new missile was among those tested.
A Japanese newspaper reported recently that 10 Iranians were invited to North Korea to observe the missile tests. A South Korean military expert, who asked not to be quoted by name, said he heard that Iranians were stationed at two launch sites along North Korea's east coast and on a boat in the Sea of Japan.
