North Korea is said to have sent more than 200 engineers to help Iran's
missile and nuclear program. Japan's Mainichi Shimbun daily reported that
the North Korean engineers were working in Iran's nuclear facilities,
including the enrichment facility at Natanz.
"They carry passports in other names so as not to reveal their
immigration records or movements," Mainichi Shimbun said on May 16.
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The newspaper said the North Koreans were working in 12 Iranian missile
and nuclear locations. The North Korean presence was said to have been
expanded over the last two years amid U.S. efforts to block Pyongyang's
missile and nuclear exports to Iran.
"The more than 200 engineers are divided between 12 locations including
Natanz, where there are uranium enrichment facilities," the newspaper said.
The United Nations Security Council has completed a report that asserted
that North Korea was supplying missile technology to Iran through China.
Iran has denied this.
Another Western report said Iran was constructing missile
facilities in the South American country of Venezuela. Germany's Die Welt
said Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was building an
intermediate-range rocket-launch facility near Columbia.