- A disturbing piece of US intelligence was due to be laid
before the US president George W. Bush's strategy review conference with
the Iraq Study Group and talks with the visiting Israeli prime minister
Ehud Olmert in Washington. It is bound to color the two events which both
take place Monday, Nov. 13. Twelve days before North Korea's first nuclear
test on Oct.10, a secret Iranian military delegation of nuclear and missile
experts was present in Pyongyang. The visitors were taken round North Korea's
Yongbyon reactor and the Punggye-ri testing site in the far north amid
the preparations for the coming North Korean test.
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- This visit was first disclosed on Nov.10 by DEBKA-Net-Weekly
277.
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- Some US officials received the impression that the Iranians
were briefed on some of North Korea's secret preparations for the test.
If true, this would point to three developments in North Korean-Iranian
relations:
-
- First, China was in on the Iranian visit, but ignored
it, preferring Pyongyang to carry the can as Iran's nuclear partner rather
than Beijing.
-
- Second, China must also have known about the coming North
Korean nuclear weapons test and only pretended to have been taken unawares
by Pyongyang's ten-minute advance notice.
-
- Third, North Korea not only agreed to open its most secret
nuclear installations to Iranian scrutiny, but is also willing to instruct
Iranian scientists and technicians in Pyongyang or on their home ground
on how to set up and execute a nuclear weapons test.
-
- DEBKA-Net-Weekly's Tehran sources add: Iran's overweening
self-confidence in its ability to carry through its nuclear aspirations
in the teeth of international rancor hinges heavily on its certainty of
China-North Korean assistance.
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