With Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s August 22nd “announcement” date fast approaching, the story that North Korea may be preparing a nuclear bomb test is especially interesting.

What if North Korea performs a successful nuclear test in the coming days, and, on August 22nd, Ahmadinejad announces that, hey, that was our test too! We are now a nuclear power.

What are the odds? Well, see this article from the Sunday Times back on January 29th of this year. Iran and North Korea have had close contacts for years; contacts which have only greatly intensified since Ahmadinejad came to power. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have established direct links with the North Koreans. Have they been discussing horticulture?

It is generally considered that North Korea has ample material for multiple nuclear weapons — enough to make a useful quantity of bombs for itself, while still selling some to others. North Korea is beyond dirt poor — desperate enough to do just about anything for cash, including counterfeiting U.S. currency on an industrial scale. Iran, of-course, is rolling in oil dollars. Iran is desperate to have a nuclear weapon. Anyone see a possible match there?

Is it possible that while the world has been focusing on Iran’s own drive for uranium enrichment, the Iranians have been simply buying their bombs, ready-made, from the North Koreans?

Would world “intelligence” have caught this? Well, as the Times article indicates, what world intelligence has detected are the kind of contacts that would be necessary to enable a transfer of nuclear technology. As for the transfer itself, let’s imagine for a second that U.S. and world intelligence is not infallible (even though we know it is!) and that somehow or other, the North Koreans and the Iranians managed to keep the movement of material and technology secret. Perhaps transfers of material have not been done on slow-moving freighters that can be intercepted and searched, but on diplomatic flights between Tehran and Pyongyang — in multiple small parts if necessary.

Imagine waking up on August 22nd, or someday soon, to the knowledge that not only does the mad North Korean regime have the bomb, but that Iran has leapfrogged over all predictions and achieved a seismic shift in the Middle East by acquiring its own nuclear weapons.

You can see Ahmadinejad grinning as he announces, “Thanks to our rotund infidel friend, Kim Jong Il, the Islamic Republic of Iran is now ready to deliver total destruction to our enemies.” One nuclear test: two new nuclear nations. Bang for your buck.

Alarmist? Maybe. But, given what we know, how surprising would it really be?

By the same token, August 22nd may be nothing more than an opportunity for the Iranians to deliver a convoluted counter-proposal to the West on uranium enrichment, in an effort to divide their opposition and muddy the waters.

Fingers crossed.

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