Missile Meltdown: How North Korea’s Tech Might Fueled Iran’s Attack on Israel

North Korean Source Technology Involved
Possible Collaboration Among Three Nations
North Korean-Russian Weapon Supply as Background

Recently, Iran attacked mainland Israel with offensive drones and ballistic missiles. Upon observing this, U.S. experts have speculated that there’s a high likelihood that the ballistic missiles Iran used in the attack on Israel incorporated technology developed by North Korea. The possibility of a triangular technological cooperation between North Korea, Iran, and Russia was also raised.

On the 15th, former U.S. Deputy Representative for the North Korean Nuclear Six-Party Talks, Joseph DeTrani, stated in an interview with VOA, “It is presumed that the ballistic missile weapons currently Iran possess heavily rely on technology supplied by North Korea.”

He also claimed that North Korea has provided significant support to Iran in the field of weapons, especially with ballistic missiles, from the 1980s to the early 2000s.

Additionally, DeTrani pointed out that there’s a high likelihood that North Korea’s source technology might be incorporated into the ballistic missile program Iran used in its attack on mainland Israel.

Earlier, on the night of the 13th (local time), Iran carried out a military retaliation against Israel, launching an estimated 170 drones, at least 120 ballistic missiles, and a minimum of 30 cruise missiles.

While Iran claimed their attack was successful, according to Israeli military authorities, Israel’s air defense system intercepted and neutralized about 99% of the attacks.

DeTrani argued as Israel was concerned, this attack proved the hypothesis of the experts as unequivocal truth for the missile technology North Korea owns could influence Iran to use in attacks on Israel.

Van Diepen, a former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation (ISN) and a missile expert, stated in a phone interview with VOA that based on the debris seen in the photos released through the media, some of the ballistic missiles Iran used in the attack on Israel are presumed to be from the Scud or Rodong missile series developed by North Korea.

Diepen pointed out that it’s a well-known fact that North Korea transferred the capacity and technology to produce Scud B and C-type missiles and Rodong missiles to Iran around the early 1990s when the Soviet Union was collapsing. Therefore, it’s almost certain that North Korea’s original technology was included in the bombardment Iran carried out. However, he added that he has not seen any evidence of exchanges between North Korea and Iran in the field of missile technology or weapons in recent years.

Furthermore, Robert Peters, a research fellow for Nuclear Deterrence and Missile Defense at The Heritage Foundation’s Allison Center for National Security, claimed that while there is no complete evidence to prove that North Korea directly cooperated with Iran, it’s plausible enough to anticipate such a possibility.

He also speculated that Russia could have been a common denominator between them, potentially initiating a tripartite weapons cooperation.

As an example, Peters pointed out that North Korea has been supplying Russia with short-range missiles to use in the Ukrainian war over the past few months, with a background of cooperation between North Korea and Russia.

He also added that there is enough evidence that Russia provides human and material support for the development of North Korea’s cruise missile program as a part of the price for the weapons supply.

Peters also mentioned that Iran and Russia’s cooperation in missile and drone technology is well known, and the cooperation that started with Russia as a common link could have evolved into a direct one between North Korea and Iran. He speculated that if North Korea and Iran had actual cooperation, North Korea would have provided technical assistance to enhance the accuracy of Iran’s existing missiles.

Meanwhile, Bruce W. Bennett, adjunct international/defense researcher at the RAND Corporation, presented a different opinion from Diepen’s prediction. Bennett explained that the cooperation between Iran and North Korea is unclear due to the lack of direct evidence, considering the military cooperation between North Korea and Russia. However, there’s a high possibility that they could do the same with Iran – a speculation shared by all experts.

However, he pointed out that most of the ballistic missiles Iran fired at mainland Israel were intercepted, suggesting the possibility that Iran launched a large number of old missiles to clear out their military warehouse inventory.

If this prediction is accurate, Bennett argued that the likelihood of using the older medium-range Rodong missiles is higher than using the short-range Scud missiles mentioned by other experts.

He stated that if Iran deployed North Korean-made old Rodong missiles, it wouldn’t technically be a threatening level. However, there’s also a possibility that Iran could have received new ones from North Korea and kept them undisclosed, so we need to keep an eye out for additional threats.