A North Korean Nuclear Test for Iran?

Might Iran simply buy nuclear technology from North Korea, thereby bypassing their own strained efforts to build a nuclear weapon?

At least one expert believes North Korea's recent nuclear test, its third since 2006, may have in part benefited Iran, a terror-sponsoring state that has worked for years to build a nuclear device.

According to the Jerusalem Post, Dr. Alon Levkowitz, coordinator of Bar-Ilan University’s Asian Studies Program and a member of the BESA Center for Strategic Studies, said Tuesday's N. Korean nuclear test may have been carried out in the presence of Iranian nuclear scientists.

“The most disturbing question is whether the Iranians are using North Korea as a backdoor plan for their own nuclear program. The Iranians didn’t carry out a nuclear test in Iran, but they may have done so in North Korea,” Levkowitz said. “There is no official information on this... but Iran may have bypassed inspections via North Korea. If true, this is a very worrying development.”

It is unclear what type of device N. Korea exploded on Tuesday. If it was an enriched uranium -- rather than plutonium -- device, that would suggest cooperation with the Iranians, who have been enriching uranium despite international censure.

“There is regular cooperation, since the 1980s, between North Korea and Iran. North Korea also helped set up a plutonium nuclear facility in Syria, which was bombed by Israel in 2007, according to foreign sources,” he said.

Israel's prime minister this week warned that Iran is speeding toward the development of a nuclear weapon and that sanctions and diplomacy alone will not halt its drive.

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