To Know Your Enemy, You Must Become Your Enemy
- Sun Tzu
Recently, in response to the worst drought in 100 years, the North Korean ambassador to Tehran delivered a request to the Iranian Red Crescent for urgent humanitarian aid. I understand that North Korea may not want to seek help from Europe, the United States, or even the United Nations. However, with wealthy China right across the border and the currently isolated Russia a bit further north, does it make sense for nominally communist Pyongyang to seek help from the Islamic Republic of Iran? And would it make sense for the latter to provide aid to “godless infidels?” Obviously ideological consistency is not the primary motivating factor for the relationship between Tehran and Pyongyang. Therefore, something more may be at play.
Given the secretive natures of the regimes in Pyongyang and Tehran, it is difficult to determine what exactly is happening behind the scenes. Yet, I believe it is likely that the basis for the relationship between the two nations may be cooperation on the development of nuclear weapons. Iran may agree to stop its enrichment of uranium inside its own borders; it may even agree to permit IAEA inspectors to visit and scrutinize every site – civilian and military – to the satisfaction of the P5+1 all the while it continues its nuclear activities inside the borders of the most secretive nation.
By taking a hard stance on key provisions, insisting that Iran has a sovereign right and interest in denying IAEA inspectors the authority to inspect Iranian sites, and then finally giving into the demands of the P5+1 in the last hour, Khamenei would appear to be compromising. By working inside the borders of North Korea to enhance its nuclear capabilities, however, Iran may technically avoid violating any part of the potential agreement between Iran and the P5+1, ease the economic sanctions placed on Iran, and achieve his goal of making Iran a nuclear power.