RFI - Iranian Military Experts in Pyongyang

credit: RFI

Translation Courtesy: Buenos Aires Translator - Professor Winn

NOTE: Professor Winn is a trained observer of international relations and certified translator. These unique skills provide his loyal readers expanded insights distinct from other global security blogs.

Analysis: While the article dismisses the Iranian-North Korean linkage as fitting former US President's "axle of evil," this linkage is precisely what worries global security observers no matter the historical ties between the two countries.



Iran is assisting North Korea perfect its ballistic missile technology. These two rogue nations are negative regional actors, but their technological gains propose wider global security challenges given the increasing range of their missiles.

The proliferation of ballistic missile technology wedded with nuclear ambitions is a deadly combination in the hands of unstable leaders in Tehran and Pyongyang.

The world waits to see just how much Iran has helped North Korea improve its "satellite launch" program. The anticipated early April launch is only a few days away.

Translated Article from the original French

RFI - Des experts militaires iraniens à Pyongyang

Iran/ North Korea
Iranian military experts in Pyongyang

by RFI

Article published 03/29/2009 Last updated on 03/29/2009 at 10:36 UT

Iranian experts are in North Korea to assist the April launch of a “satellite” according to Pyongyang and a disguised missile by the United States, Japan, and South Korea, reports the Japanese newspaper, Sankei Shimbun, on Sunday, citing anonymous sources. Fifteen Iranian missile technology experts arrived in North Korea in early March carrying a letter from the Iranian president to the North Korean leader.

On February 2, Iran placed its first satellite into orbit with its Safir-2 rocket, fuelling Western worries that Tehran would use the technology to develop its ballistic missile program. (Photo: Reuters)

On February 2, Iran placed its first satellite into orbit with its Safir-2 rocket, fuelling Western worries that Tehran would use the technology to develop its ballistic missile program. (Photo: Reuters)
(Photo: Reuters)

If Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wrote Kim Jong-il, it is does signal George Bush’s axis of evil, but underscores the important cooperation between the two countries in the fields of ballistic missiles and space. Iran and North Korea have worked together in these fields for more than 20 years.

Since the 1980s, Iran showed interest in the North Korean Hwaseong-5, nothing more than an improvement on the Soviet Scud. In June 1987 at the end of the Iran-Iraq War, Tehran bought 100 for $500 million. It was renamed Shahab-1 in Iran with a range of 300 kilometers.

In 1993, North Korea prepared a new missile : the Rodong-1 with a range of 1,500 kilometers. In March, Iranian General Mantequei, head of the Revolution’s guided missile program, was invited for its test. Delighted, Iran bought 150 Rodongs and renamed them Shahab-2 and Shahab-3.

At the time, Tehran was not just satisfied with buying North Korean technology. Iranian engineers developed their own ballistic missiles with oil dollars. North Korea was not their only seller and they soon overtook their client.

Today Iran is more advanced than North Korea. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad takes pride in recently launching a satellite into space. Iranians are assisting North Korea launch its much-touted Taepodong-2 missile with a supposed range of 6,700 kilometers.

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Japón y EEUU, en alerta máxima por cohete de Corea del Norte | CaracolTV.com

Translation Courtesy: Buenos Aires Translator

Japón y EEUU, en alerta máxima por cohete de Corea del Norte | CaracolTV.com

Japan and US on maximum alert for North Korean Missile

Las dos potencias no están dispuestas a quedarse de brazos cruzados mientras Pyongyang se apresta a lanzar el supuesto cohete. Por eso, la primera movilizó dos buques militares capaces de interceptar misiles y la segunda alista otras dos naves destructoras. ¿Conflicto armado a la vista?

The two powers are not sitting with their arms crossed while Pyongyang readies to launch its reported rocket. In this regard, the former mobilized two missile interceptor vessles and the latter two naval destroyers. Is armed conflict near?

Corea del Norte anunció que lanzará un satélite de comunicaciones entre el 4 y el 8 de abril, pero las potencias regionales creen que será una prueba de su misil de largo alcance, el Taepodong-2, que ya estaría en la plataforma de lanzamiento en una base.

North Korea said it will launch a communications satellite between April 4 and 8, but the regional powers believe the long-range missile test of the Taepodong-2 could already be on a base launch pad.

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Test of Wills, Credibility

Pyongyang insists in being first to challenge the young Obama administration in Washington.

The test of wills between the two capitals is more than an academic exercise for both US foes and friends alike. Japan, a stalwart Asian ally, now has Patriot missile batteries surrounding Tokyo just in case.

Given the untested president, US credibility not only in Asia but worldwide hangs in the balance the stakes are so high.

Media reports diffused in different languages communicate explicitly Washington and Tokyo's resolve to counter any Pyongyang chicanery.

US in Range

The Taepodong-2, a two or three-stage rocket with a range of over 4,000 miles, could hit Alaska while a US admiral also includes Hawaii, where President Obama spent his formative years.

While analysts at Global Security Monitor are certain Pyongyang is aware of the "red lines" set by Washington to what constitutes a "pull the ripcord" moment, it is not abundantly clear North Korea cares. credit: AFP

Given North Korea's technical difficulties with the Taepedong (the last test failed in 2006), a safer scenario for global security is another launch pad "accident."

While the immediate crisis would pass, the persistent problem of a starving hermit regime armed to the teeth across
from the DMZ menacing an important US ally, South Korea, and disturbing NE Asia peace, would remain in its wake.

North Korea readies missile, makes new threat

North Korea readies missile, makes new threat

3...2...1...Countdown to Confrontation

North Korea appears impervious to external pressure. Its early April satellite launch (which also tests ballistic missile launch capability) nears without any sign of flexibility from Pyongyang.

Despite the warnings of more UN sanctions (dubious effectiveness given the extent North Korea is already disconnected from the global community) and the presence of US naval vessels offshore to shoot down the missile if ordered, Pyongyang nears the point of no return in its deadly serious cat-and-mouse game with its Six Party Talk states (US, China, Russia, Japan, South Korea).

Another rogue regime disturbs regional security with wider implications for global security. The countdown to confrontation with North Korea advances unabated.

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More Realism Needed in US Policy Toward Iran

US President Obama's video personal appeal to the leaders of Iran's theocracy fell flat with a loud thud. The young president's "new beginning" was at best another naive overture to a hardened ideological regime dedicated to defeating US interests in the Middle East and leading a worldwide jihad.

It is increasingly clear the new US administration has not studied recent diplomatic history with Iran. The so-called EU-3 (France, Germany, and United Kingdom) Initiative born in 2003 to assert (unsuccessfully) the European Union's stake in global security failed to convince Iran with again - words - to alter its negative behavior. It was difficult for Iran to take serious complaints by its European trading partners.

The IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) in its February 2009 report in a frank manner lays bare the big elephant in the room for the implications of Tehran's continued intransigence on the nuclear issue:

"Regrettably, as a result of the continued lack of cooperation by Iran in connection with the
remaining issues which give rise to concerns about possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear programme, the Agency has not made any substantive progress on these issues."

While recording the history of the Iranian nuclear program in its various filings, the IAEA is unable as an institution to put the brakes on Tehran's naked ambition to acquire actionable nuclear weapons and wed this destructive capability with its ballistic missile program. That task is incumbent upon states.

A "new beginning," holiday wishes or hopes for a better tomorrow with Tehran are not needed. Worse is the hint of moral equivalence between the US and Iran. From the US president, again, a glaring lack of knowledge about the current Iranian regime is appalling.

A fair reading of human history illuminates at least one point: olive branches and melodious rhetoric from democracies do not tame despotic regimes bent on implementing their negative policies. In the end, Nazi Germany and the former Soviet Union yielded only to confrontation to change their ways when there was a will to fight.

The rod, not the olive branch, compelled a change in course. Our dangerous world is governed by the aggressive use of force.

The continued lack of realism and sober views of the current Islamic-fascist regime in Tehran by Washington edges the global community ever closer to either acquiescing to a nuclear-tipped Iran or acting to stop it.


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