Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Photo: EPA
Report: Iran held nuclear test in N. Korea
German press says Tehran, Pyongyang collaborated on possibly more than one nuclear test in early 2010
Germany's Die Welt newspaper reported Sunday that Iran
held at least one nuclear weapons test in North Korea in 2010.
The paper's report is based on "Western intelligence agencies sources," and says that the test, in fact, refutes US intelligence assessments suggesting there is no "hard evidence" that Iran is building nuclear weapons.
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The International Atomic Energy Agency has recently declared that its nuclear negotiations with Iran have failed.
The statement followed Tehran's decision the bar IAEA inspectors from what is believed to be key military sites in the Islamic Republic.
Iran vehemently claims that its nuclear program is meant to serve civil, peaceful purposes only.
The Die Welt noted that evidence of the 2010 nuclear tests in North Korea was published in early February in Nature Magazine.
According to the report, Swedish nuclear physicist Lars-Erik de Geer analyzed data "showing the presence of radioisotopes that betrayed a uranium bomb explosion."
"After a year of work, (de Geer) concluded that North Korea carried out two small nuclear tests in April and May 2010 that caused explosions in the range of 50–200 tons of TNT equivalent.
"The types and ratios of isotopes detected… suggest that North Korea was testing materials and techniques intended to boost the yield of its weapons," the report said.
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