The extensive missile arsenal of the Islamic Republic of Iran is a product of collaboration with North Korea, a regime marked by the U.S. as a state sponsor of terrorism. This partnership, intricately linked with Iran, is highlighted by one of the top authorities on the strategic cooperation between these two nations.
Bruce Bechtol, who penned “Rogue Allies: The Strategic Partnership Between Iran and North Korea” alongside Anthony Celso, shared with Fox News Digital that the missile targeting Diego Garcia was a Musudan model. Iran acquired 19 such missiles from North Korea back in 2005, thereby possessing this capability for nearly two decades. This arsenal is far from being a clandestine weapon, according to Bechtol.
Recently, Fox News Digital disclosed that Iran has significantly intensified its military operations against the United States by launching two intermediate-range ballistic missiles aimed at Diego Garcia, situated approximately 2,500 miles away from Iran.
In a December 2025 image released by KCNA via Reuters, Kim Jong-un is seen visiting a major ammunition facility, underscoring the ongoing military developments.
Bechtol emphasized that Iran’s most formidable threat amid its conflict with the U.S. and Israel lies in its ballistic missile capabilities. These missiles have not only targeted American and Israeli sites but have also been directed at neighboring Islamic nations, highlighting the origins of such military prowess.
He further explained that Iran’s short-range ballistic missiles, like the “QIAM,” have been deployed against critical U.S. installations and nearby Arab countries. These systems were developed with significant North Korean expertise and support, illustrating the depth of military proliferation from North Korea to Iran that is evident in the current conflict.
Here is the launch of an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Shahab-3 medium-range missile during a test at an undisclosed location on Monday, Sept. 28, 2009. (AP Photo)
The joint U.S.-Israeli war against Iran’s regime, the world’s worst state-sponsor of terrorism, according to the U.S. State Department, has entered its fifth week of combat.
Bechtol, who is a professor of political science in the Department of Security Studies at Angelo State University in Texas, noted that, according to the Wisconsin Project, North Korea had constructed a large missile test facility at Emamshahr, a city in the Fars Province in Iran, and a tracking facility at Tabas in South Khorasan province.
He said that North Korea aided Iran with crucial technology “for targets farther away from Iran.”
“The North Koreans proliferated around 150 No Dong systems to Iran in the late 1990s. The Iranians were apparently very happy with the missiles the North Koreans provided them, and, following the earlier precedent of the Scud C factory, contracted with Pyongyang to build a No Dong facility in Iran.
Bechtol continued, “The Iranians called this “new” missile the Shahab-3. The Shahab-3 is almost an exact copy of the No Dong. Once the Shahab-3 was up and running, the North Koreans moved forward with the Iranians in improving its range and lethality.”
He said, “With assistance from the North Koreans, the Iranians were then able to produce (at the No Dong facility) the Emad and the Ghadr. The Emad has a range of 1,750 kilometers (approx 1,087 miles) and the Ghadr has a range of 1,950 kilometers (approximately 1,212 miles.) The Iranians have used these two systems to target not only Israel, but their Arab neighbors (including U.S. bases located in these countries) throughout the ongoing first stages of this conflict.”
A Ghadr-H missile, center, a Sejjil missile and a portrait of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are on display for the annual Defense Week, marking the 37th anniversary of the 1980s Iran-Iraq war, at Baharestan Sq. in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Sept. 24, 2017 (AP)
Bechtol said that the North Koreans spawned an Iranian missile warhead that weighs a ton and a half to two tons on the powerful Khorramshahr-4. “There is another system capable of hitting Israel that has been even more lethal than any of the systems described thus far. This system is called the ‘Khorramshahr,’ and the fourth version of this system, appropriately called the ‘Khorramshahr-4,’ has been proven to carry a warhead larger than any other in Iran’s missile inventory, armed with what appears to be cluster munitions,” he said.
He described the strategic partnership, noting: “North Korea is the seller and Iran is the buyer. North Korea proliferates weapons systems, technology, parts and components, technicians, engineers and specialists and military capabilities (such as the building of underground facilities) to Iran. Iran pays North Korea with cash and oil. Simple as that.”
Residents and officers from Israel’s Home Front Command inspect a house destroyed by an Iranian missile strike in Zarzir, northern Israel, Friday, March 13, 2026. (Ariel Schalit/AP Photo)
Bechtol said the only way to stop this is through sanctions enforcement against North Korea. “The sanctions that are needed are already on the books. But the USA and our key allies need to robustly enforce them. We need to go after banks, front companies and cyber entities in order to squeeze the money and contain or destroy the supply chain.”
He said, “More emphasis needs to be placed, and more action needs to be taken using the Proliferation Security Initiative — an underused aspect of preventing North Korea’s arms from flowing to rogue nations and terrorist groups. If you cut off the supply chain, you cut off the proliferation.”
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