Iran is preparing for an underground nuclear test with North Korean
help before year's end - London Daily Telegraph

January 24, 2007, 1:52 PM (GMT+02:00)
North Korea's Yongbyon reactor



The British paper, quoting a senior European source, reports that North
Korea is helping Iran prepare an underground nuclear test similar to
the one Pyongyang carried out last October 9. In his State of the Union
speech Wednesday, Jan. 23, US president George Bush said: "The United
Nations has imposed sanctions on Iran and made it clear that the world
will not allow ... Tehran to acquire nuclear weapons."

Bush did not explain what his intentions were. Iran has faced no
threats of military action to thwart its acquisition of nuclear weapons
except in veiled suggestions by the US and Israel.

On Sept 13, DEBKAfile revealed exclusively that 12 days before the
North Korean test, an Iranian military delegation was admitted to the
Yongbyon reactor (picture) and Punggye-ri testing site in northeast
North Korea. They were allowed to witness some of North Korea's
preparations for its first nuclear test with a view to sharing part of
its knowledge with Iran. It was suspected in Washington and Jerusalem
then that the North Koreans would actively help Iran get ready for its
first underground nuclear test.

DEBKAfile's military sources report the word going around Western
intelligence in recent weeks is that Tehran has already managed mock
tests by computer simulations. This would place a real test only months
away and mean that a breakthrough on the Iranian nuclear program has
been accelerated to a much earlier date than anticipated by the US and
Israel.

Ahead of the Bush speech of Wednesday, Iran took two steps: The
Revolutionary Guards launched a three-day exercise to test its
short-range surface missiles and it barred 38 inspectors of the
International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna from looking over its
nuclear sites. Tehran is not severing its ties with the nuclear
watchdog, a spokesman explained later.

European nuclear and military experts estimate that no more than 12
months would separate an underground test from the manufacture of an
operational half-kiloton bomb. This means that an Iran may well have
acquired the ability to produce a nuclear bomb by the end of 2008.

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