What North Korea's rocket launch tells us about Iran's role

I think some will say that this report has the Iranian-north Korean cooperative relationship reversed.  But we should be very clear that regardless of who is helping whom and who is developing the technology there is definitely Iranian-north Korean cooperation and collaboration.

V/R

Dave

What North Korea's rocket launch tells us about Iran's role

Tom Gjelten with NPR | December 14th, 2012, 11:30am

http://www.scpr.org/news/2012/12/14/35257/what-north-koreas-rocket-launch-tells-us-about-ira/

U.S. officials say the satellite put into orbit by North Korea's rocket launch this week is wobbling, but that doesn't necessarily mean the launch itself was unsuccessful.

U.S. analysts say the North Koreans' main goal was not to put a satellite into orbit, but just to see all three stages of their rocket work, to show that the rocket could carry its payload a long distance. That it did. In the last test, in April, the first rocket stages worked as designed, but the third stage failed. Charles Vick, a missile expert at GlobalSecurity.org, credits the North Koreans with learning from their past mistakes.

"They have demonstrated not merely an ability to identify problems, but to resolve those problems and get the total system to work together, all three stages working as a single launch vehicle," he said.

So, the North Koreans are making progress.

Iran's Role

Next question: What, if anything, did this launch mean for Iran?

(Continued at the link below)

http://www.scpr.org/news/2012/12/14/35257/what-north-koreas-rocket-launch-tells-us-about-ira/