Iran-North Korea
Iran rejects Trump’s suggestion that it was working with North Korea on missile development.
By Elad Benari – Arutz Sheva
Iran said Monday that suggestions by U.S. President Donald Trump that it was working with North Korea on missile development were “nonsense”, AFP reported.
On Saturday, Trump responded to Iran’s claim that it conducted a ballistic missile test by tweeting, “Iran just test-fired a Ballistic Missile capable of reaching Israel. They are also working with North Korea. Not much of an agreement we have!”
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi responded to the tweet on Monday and said there were “no similarities nor resemblance” with the actions of North Korea, and that claims they were working together on ballistic missile development amounted to a “clear lie”.
“It is very clear that this is a nonsense and baseless claim,” he told reporters, according to AFP.
Iran had claimed on Saturday that it had tested its Khorramshahr missile with a range of 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles).
On Monday, however, experts in the United States said that Iran’s reports may have been fake and that, in fact, they were airing video of an old failed test from this past January.
Iran and North Korea have cooperated on military technology in the past, noted AFP.
During Iran’s war with Iraq in the 1980s, it turned to North Korea as one of the only sources of military assistance, importing a stockpile of Nodong missiles.
Iran used the Nodong to develop its own medium-range Shahab-3 missile, which was first tested in 1998, and it has continued to improve on the design since.
Since the, there has been scant evidence of direct cooperation between the two countries, noted AFP.
A report earlier this month in the British Sunday Telegraph suggested that North Korea’s sudden advancement in developing nuclear weapons may have been due to secret support from Iran.
Senior sources told the newspaper it is not credible that North Korean scientists alone brought about the technological advances, adding that Iran is at the top of the list of countries suspected of giving some form of assistance.