North Korea is helping Iran develop its nuclear ballistic missile program, Alireza Jafarzadeh, deputy director of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, tells
Newsmax TV.
"The world has known about the cooperation of North Korea and Iran for many years, but what they didn't know is that the extent of cooperation … is way beyond missile technology," Jafarzadeh said Wednesday on "the Steve Malzberg Show."
"The cooperation extends to two other major fields – one, the nuclear program of Iran and the other, the development of the nuclear warhead technology."
Story continues below video.
Watch Newsmax TV on DirecTV Ch. 349, DISH Ch. 223 and Verizon FiOS Ch. 115. Get Newsmax TV on your cable system — Click Here Now
And Jafarzadeh said his group has learned the cooperation is ongoing and as recent as a month ago.
"Just in the last week of April, a seven-member delegation of North Korean experts, including nuclear warhead experts, visited Iran secretly," he said.
"They dealt with the minister of defense and the Revolutionary Guards and then they returned back to North Korea. There is … a nine-member delegation, coming in June, anytime in the next few days.
"That's extremely worrisome because it shows that as the Iranian regime is negotiating with North Korea, they are extending their operations and assistance with North Korea not on the nine or regular military issues, but specifically on the nuclear issue."
Just as disturbing, Jafarzadeh told Steve Malzberg, is that one of Iran's top nuclear scientists, who is considered the "father" of its nuclear weapons program, was present when North Koreans conducted its last nuclear test in February 2013.
"He traveled in a secret way under a pseudonym. What's really the purpose of observing a nuclear test in North Korea if this is not something that they are considering for their own program?" he said.
Jafarzadeh — author of
"The Iran Threat: President Ahmadinejad and the Coming Nuclear Crisis," published by Palgrave Macmillan Trade — added he was not surprised that President Barack Obama told Israeli TV this week that the deal being hammered out with Iran is the only way to stop Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons, and "a military solution will not fix it."
"I'm certainly not surprised because the strategy the administration has been pursuing and dealing with Iran has not been an appropriate one," he said.
"If you show the Iranian regime that you badly need to have some kind of deal, no matter how much Tehran cheats, no matter how much they defy the international community, it puts you in a very difficult position, especially in dealing with the Iranian regime because we're not talking about a normal state.
"We're talking about a regime that is the worst leading state sponsor of terrorism, is a major violator of human rights and is developing nuclear weapons.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran describes itself as "an inclusive and pluralistic parliament-in-exile" with more than 500 members, including Kurds, Baluchis, Armenians, Jews and Zoroastrians who represent a broad spectrum of political tendencies in Iran. It aims to establish a secular democratic republic in Iran, based on the separation of religion and state.