Iran and North Korea Seek Stronger Ties
The chairman of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly, Choe Thae-bok, would not be a welcome guest in many countries. But Iran is happy to have him.
Iranian Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larijani said, “We have always been after stability of relations with North Korea.” Choe said his nation is seeking “improved relations with Iran.” The comments were made in the lead-up to the Sixth International Conference in Support of the Palestinian Intifada. Choe had arrived early, and he and Larijani took the opportunity to announce their plans for a closer partnership.
According to Iranian news media, more than 700 foreign representatives attended at the conference. Considering his country’s isolated and rogue nature, the Korean delegate is a particularly conspicuous guest.
During their meeting, Larijani lamented with heavy commiserating overtones that “Americans are always trying to pressure independent states and do not seek calm in various regions.” In his mind, North Korea and Iran are the victims of the United States’ interfering foreign policy and, as such, ought to stick together.
The fact that Choe was there to support a violent Palestinian uprising against Israelis, a cause with almost no effect or attachment to North Korea, shows his country’s desire to join a united front against U.S. interests. As Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stated during the conference, “Despite the differences that exist among Islamic countries … the issue of Palestine can and should be the pivot of unity for all Islamic countries.” North Korea is not Islamic, but it shares some of the same interests as radical Islam. Anything that undermines America in the Mideast aids North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s anti-American rogue nation in the East.
Since Choe was in town for the Palestinian conference, his meeting with Larijani leaned more on Middle Eastern issues than North Korean. And therein lies the concern. Supporting an intifada against Israel is bad enough, but it is what wasn’t discussed—at least publicly—that is worrying.
North Korea and Iran have not come together merely because they are “hard done by.” Both insane regimes are bent on the development of nuclear weapons.
A Bad Influence
Both nations hate the West and are working together to destroy it.
In 2011, Japanese and South Korean newspapers reported that hundreds of North Korean scientists were helping Iran with its nuclear program. Japanese paper Sankei Shimbun reported that North Koreans had visited three Iranian centers researching nuclear weapons triggering.
“There’ve been stories of Iranians at the nuclear tests in North Korea, for example,” said Bruce Bennett, senior defense analyst at the Rand Corporation at the time. “So if information is really being shared, then you’ve got a much more dangerous situation, because most people would argue that the North Korean nuclear program is out ahead of Iran, and we don’t want Iran having that assistance.”
Furthermore, Iran has watched North Korea successfully hoodwink America, acquiring and successfully testing nuclear weapons without any military reaction. The weak U.S. response only serves to embolden Iran, which is itself just a few steps away from entering the nuclear club.
Dangerously Differing Goals
If Iran gets the bomb, it will use it for religiously motivated purposes. On January 21, Jerusalem Post columnist Melanie Phillips wrote that some people believe Iran already has a nuclear bomb, “or at least already has access to nuclear weapons having outsourced the testing of the bomb to North Korea. Iran is now pondering how to use the weapon to maximum destructive effect and without leaving its fingerprints on it.”
Notice also what Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote in the October 2016 edition of the Trumpet:
Eighty-five percent of the 78 million Shiites in Iran believe in Twelver Shiism, an idea that Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of the Iranian Revolution, espoused. This is an ideology that embraces death. These people are dedicated to a cause. What motivates these terrorists to create chaos and violence?
Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Dore Gold said that a nuclear Iran can’t be deterred like the Soviet Union was during the Cold War. The Iranians have a much more radical belief system. They think their savior—the 12th imam, or Mahdi—will return sooner if they cause more apocalyptic chaos and violence. As Dore Gold pointed out in a 2008 Frontpage symposium, “[A]nyone who says with confidence that the West can get used to a nuclear Iran and rely on classic deterrence models has absolutely no idea of what he is up against.”
This is why a warming relationship with North Korea should set off alarm bells in every capital of every country. Iran wants war. Most Shiites in the nation—including the supreme leader—believe that an apocalypse must be initiated to quickly bring home the Mahdi! North Korea doesn’t believe that, nor does any other regime that currently has nuclear weapons.
Iran will be the first nation of its kind to join the nuclear club, thanks to some aid from North Korea! For more on the danger Iran poses to the entire world, read The King of the South, by Gerald Flurry.
