The independent outlet Iran International reported on Thursday, citing a report from a South Korean think tank, that a defecting North Korean diplomat claimed the tunnel technology used to construct key Iranian nuclear facilities was sold to the rogue terrorist state by Pyongyang.
The diplomat, Ryu Hyun-woo, claimed that Iran used the technology it paid North Korea for to construct tunnels in the underground uranium enrichment facilities in Natanz and Isfahan, two of the three sites that President Donald Trump ordered airstrikes on in June 2025 to stop illicit nuclear activity. Trump also ordered airstrikes on a similar facility in Fordow, which Ryu reportedly did not mention in his comments to the Korea Development Institute.
As the Iranian regime has not allowed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect the bombed sites, the whereabouts and status of the prodigious amount of enriched uranium believed to be housed there remains unknown at press time. This may soon change, though Iranian officials have refused to confirm if so, as part of the peace agreement between Washington and Tehran. The “memorandum of understanding” signed by both parties last week includes a provision in which Iran agrees to cooperate with the IAEA, which IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi stated would indeed result in his agency conducting inspections — unless Iran violates the agreement.
The Iran International report highlights decades of North Korean communist involvement and influence in the Middle East. North Korea has established a close diplomatic relationship with Iran and is among the world’s most aggressively anti-Israel governments. As recently as this weekend, dictator Kim Jong-un told his subjects that North Korea must greatly expand its nuclear capabilities, threatening the world with nuclear strikes to combat “Zionism.”
According to Iran International, Ryu stated that the North Korean government sold tunnel technology to Iran for about $25 million “in the early 2000s.” Prior to defecting, Ryu was stationed representing the communist regime in Kuwait, a position that apparently allowed him access to such information.
“North Korea provided Iran with tunnel design and technology in the early 2000s, receiving about $25 million,” the former diplomat was quoted as saying. “I understand that North Korean tunnel technology was applied to a considerable extent at underground nuclear facilities in areas such as Natanz and Isfahan.”
Ryu also denied that North Korea had direct ties with Iranian proxy terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah and Hamas, but added the caveat that “it cannot be ruled out that Iran transferred tunnel-related technology it received from North Korea to Hezbollah or Hamas.”
In reality, significant evidence exists of a relationship between North Korea and Hamas. In 2024, the governments of Israel and South Korea both presented evidence that Hamas was armed with North Korean weapons. In January of that year, Seoul’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) published photos of a North Korean F-7 rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) captured on the battlefield in the Gaza war that erupted when Hamas invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, killing over 1,000 Israeli civilians at random. The Israeli government later published photos of weapons bearing Korean writing confiscated from Hamas terrorists.
North Korea’s communist regime has also been known to sell weapons technology to Iran for decades separately from nuclear energy technology.
North Korea first began exporting military hardware to Iran during the Iran-Iraq War and has since been instrumental in the construction of Iran’s defense industry infrastructure,” the Georgetown Security Studies Review observed in 2020. “North Korea provided valuable training, production materials, and entire weapons systems in exchange for Iranian oil exports.”
The Review attributed to North Korea Iran’s development of a wide array of missiles, as well.
“All of Iran’s liquid-fuel short-range and medium-range missiles are derived from North Korean imports,” it noted at the time. “Thanks to the DPRK’s [North Korea’s] assistance, Iran is now capable of reaching all its regional strategic targets including Israel and Saudi Arabia.”
In the immediate aftermath of President Trump launching Operation Epic Fury in February 2026, the Iranian armed forces used that missile technology to target over a dozen of its neighbors, bombing countries unrelated to the conflict such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Cyprus, and Azerbaijan, in addition to targeting Israel. The terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) justified the widespread bombing by claiming that it was targeting American military sites in the Middle East, then denying that it had attacked unexplainable targets such as civilian sites in Azerbaijan.
North Korea does not recognize Israel as a country and has consistently used vitriolic language against its existence throughout its history, including during Operation Epic Freedom and the strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites last year. In June 2025, shortly after the nuclear site bombings, the North Korean Foreign Ministry declared that Israel was a “cancer-like entity… destroying global peace and security.”
“The Zionists who brought a new war to the Middle East and the behind-the-scene forces who zealously patronize and support them will be held totally responsible for destroying international peace and security,” Pyongyang proclaimed at the time.
Following the eruption of the most recent hostilities, the North Korean government was among the first to observe the declaration of Mojtaba Khamenei, who remains missing to this day, as “supreme leader” of the country, and to express “concern” over American and Israeli military operations.
During a communist party meeting this weekend, Kim Jong-un listed “Zionism” as a threat to his country, without elaborating.
“Today, the world is witnessing rampant ultra-nationalism of modern version such as ‘America First’ idea, Zionism, Ukrainian Neo-Nazism and Japanese militarism,” Kim claimed, adding that Pyongyang thus needed “to thoroughly exercise the position of a nuclear weapons state.”