Inside Story

North Korea and Iran’s missile power

A leaked UN report claims North Korea and Iran are exchanging illicit missile technology, using China as a transit hub.

North Korea and Iran have violated sanctions by sharing ballistic missile technology, according to a leaked UN report. 

The UN imposed sanctions on Pyongyang after it conducted nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. The sanctions ban all trade in nuclear and missile technology with North Korea, but the report suggests that Iran and North Korea have been exchanging ballistic missile-related items.  

Additionally, the report says that these transfers travelled through a third country, which is suspected to be China. According to the report, North Korea’s nuclear program is “primarily for military purposes”, and the country should be “compelled to abandon” it.

How worrying are these breaches, should the world seek stricter safeguards? And what sort of lesson is this to countries seeking nuclear power as a bargaining tool?

Inside Story, with presenter Jane Dutton, discusses with James Wylie, the director of the Strategic Studies Programme at the University of Aberdeen; Bjornar Simonsen, an international counselor for the Korean Friendship Association; and Joshua Goodman, a programme director at the Transatlantic Institute. 

This episode of Inside Story aired from Sunday, May 15, 2001.