North Korea: Iranian Proxy and Lab Test

North Korean Flag

North Korea (NK/DPRK) has been displaying, for quite some time, an apparently erratic behaviour that usually repels the attention of the media (except when there is a verbalised direct threat); however not having paid a closer attention to it served the adversaries of the West well. But let's go straight to the point: NK is a proxy and a test lab.

North Korea as a Proxy

Many say that the DPRK is a Chinese proxy against South Korea and Japan - this makes sense because China does have pending issues with these two Asian countries, and they are close US allies. This being said, if China by any nationalistic reason needs to cause tensions with either its neighbours or with the first world power, it will ask the DPRK to engage in provocative actions/rhetoric against the mentioned countries (something that the DPRK is more than willing to do in exchange for food, trade and political alliance).

Others say that North Korea is Russia's proxy against the US - it would make more sense if they would say that NK is Russia's pawn (i.e. when it needs to turn the US', China's and other Asian nations' attention away from its affairs [be it domestic or foreign] it uses NK as a distraction; a role North Korea is more than willing to play in exchange for military cooperation [a cooperation that contributes to its missile programme]; infrastructure projects and educational scholarships).

We will take things a bit farther and add that the DPRK is also an Iranian proxy against the US and its allies (if the North Korean-Iranian missile trade is estimated at US$2Bn per annum; imagine how much NK is making with a broader cooperation). Last month, North Korea - after being targeted for a new round of sanctions - threatened the US directly, saying that American cities would be turned into a "sea of fire" (N.B: the spirit of this threat is very much similar to that of Iran's "razing [Israeli cities] to the ground"); which prompted the US to boost its Missile Defence System in its Pacific coast line. But what was the result of this North Korean threat? It detracted the world's attention from the Iranian nuclear programme and from the fact that they are stalling the negotiations with the P5+1.

North Korea as a Test Lab

While the P5+1 is busy fretting the Iranian uranium enrichment programme; Iran is carrying on with its nuclear ambitions by turning its attention to plutonium-based nuclear weapons. The Persians need the sanctions to be eased but they also have nuclear needs (and since the world is pressing them, they have turned to an acquaintance made when they were customers of the Khan Network).

In December 2012, it was reported that Iran and North Korea had a nuclear cooperation - Jeffrey Lewis, a proliferation expert at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, suggested that before it was DPRK who was assisting the Persians with their nuclear programme, but now it is Iran who is helping NK; however after correlating the events since December we concluded that NK is still Iran's assistant.

In February 2013, reports said that Iran's top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi, travelled to North Korea to observe their Feb 12 nuclear test (of an alleged miniaturised device). It should be noted that Mr Mahabadi is the head of the Iranian miniaturisation programme (i.e. the programme seeking to miniaturise a nuclear warhead in order to be placed in a ballistic missile) which is a huge red flag. At the end of February, it was reported that there is evidence that Tehran is developing a plutonium-based nuclear weapon, in Arak - a heavy-water production plant, activated in January, from which "IAEA inspectors have been barred for eighteen months now".

In late March 2013, Tehran announced it might have a plutonium-producing reactor working in a year. Last week, Pyongyang announced its plans to restart a plutonium reactor (at its Yongbyon Nuclear Facility). There are no coincidences.

Given all these facts, we believe the international community has realised that if Iran's nuclear goals are to be stopped then its collaborators need to be tackled as well - hence the inclusion of US stealth nuclear bombers in the US-South Korea joint-military exercises.

America is sending a serious warning to North Korea, Iran and any other presumed accessory...