North Korea helped turn Iran into a missile powerhouse

Amidst Sanctions, North Korea and Iran Forge Stronger Military Links

Earlier this month, an annual report submitted to the UN Security Council outlined the growing military cooperation between North Korea and Iran in 2023. While the two rogue allies have exchanged weapons and military systems in the past, resumed cooperation on the development of long-range missiles is concerning. According to the report, “This resumed cooperation is said to have included the transfer of critical parts, with the most recent shipment associated with this relationship taking place in 2020.” In 2024, Iran and its region-wide proxy groups are expected to deploy more North Korean-made projectiles. Following Hamas’ horrific October 7 attack against Israel last year, evidence that North Korean-made weapons were used surfaced. Specifically, images of Pyongyang’s F-7 rocket-propelled grenades used against the Israel Defense Forces circulated online, confirmed by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service.

The history of the North Korean-Iran partnership

Following the fall of the Shah in the late 1970s, the transactional relationship between Tehran and Pyongyang strengthened considerably. Both countries share a mutual disdain for the United States and external forces generally, cementing their strong bond. Since the international community largely sanctions both rogue states, Iran and North Korea turn to each other to evade trade restrictions and maintain strong networks of trade.

North Korea first became a major weapons supplier to Iran during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, supplying the regime with Soviet-designed T-54 and T-55 main battle tanks (MBTs), ammunition, and other essential military equipment. Additionally, Pyongyang sent military and technical advisers to Tehran to support the regime’s war effort. The first missiles provided by the hermit kingdom to Iran were also delivered among these transfers. Pyongyang provided Scud-C missiles equipped with a 500-km range to Tehran, followed by the Hwasong-7 medium-range ballistic missile, which Iranian engineers were able to reverse engineer into the Shahab-3 single-stage, liquid-fuel ballistic missile.

North Korea’s military contributions were not just limited to sovereign nations. Following the dissolution of the USSR and the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s, Pyongyang began delivering supplies to rogue proxy groups, including non-state actors in Syria, Iran, Yemen, and Lebanon. As detailed by Brookings, North Korea was able to supply weapons and their components to Hezbollah by smuggling them through Iran and assembling them in Syria before being shipped to their final destination in Lebanon. Other instances of Pyongyang’s outreach to Iran’s proxy groups have been well documented: “In another example from 2015, Houthi militants fired 20 Scud-C missiles into Saudi Arabia that were identical to North Korea’s Hwasong-6 missile. As Samuel Ramani of the Royal United Services Institute argues, the Houthis likely captured the Scuds during battle against the Yemeni Armed Forces, which had purchased them from North Korea in 2002.”