Testifying before a Senate committee last week, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill confirmed that Iranians were present for the tests. At a news conference the following day, however, he retracted his remarks, saying he was unsure.
North Korea "has had a great interest in commercializing their missile production," and "one of the customers is Iran," Hill said.
Iranians are believed to have observed a 1998 test flight of the Taepodong, and many South Korean analysts are convinced that their fingerprints eventually will be found on these latest tests.
Kim Tae-woo, a South Korean analyst with the governmental Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in Seoul, said, "There is a high probability of Iranian involvement in these missile tests, but we don't have hard evidence."
There is a natural affinity between North Korea and Iran today, as they are the two remaining members of President Bush's "axis of evil," which once included Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Both have strained relations with the rest of the international community -- North Korea over its claim of having nuclear weapons and Iran because of suspicions that it is developing weapons-grade uranium.
"There are strong incentives for cooperation between the two in terms of weapons of mass destruction," said Daniel Pinkston, a North Korea specialist with Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, Calif. "They are both insecure countries that don't have a lot of friends and have many enemies. They have a shortage of weapons suppliers so it makes sense for them to share data and set up a division of labor for research and development."
The relationship dates to the 1980s, when North Korea sold missiles and launchers to Tehran for use in the war against Iraq. Later, they cooperated on the joint development of Iran's Shahab missiles. Iranian cargo planes were frequently seen at Pyongyang's Sunan Airport.
On at least one occasion, U.S. intelligence believed that Iran conducted a missile test on North Korea's behalf, taking advantage of its vast expanses of desert.
Iran is thought to be North Korea's best customer since pressure from the Bush administration has forced others -- mostly notably Pakistan, Libya, Yemen and Nigeria -- to sever most ties with Pyongyang. Syria also remains a customer. South Korean analysts say that military equipment often is shipped to Iran via Damascus, the Syrian capital.
Military analysts say that North Korean missiles have not been detected in the latest conflagration between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas fighting in Lebanon, but that there is evidence that small arms and mobile rocket launchers from North Korea have been used.
The North Koreans have made clear their views on the conflict. In a statement Tuesday carried by the official news agency KCNA, an unnamed North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman demanded that the U.S. and Israel "halt their reckless military aggression" in Lebanon.
