Iran: February 17, 2000

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  China began selling it's C-802 cruise missile to Iran some five years ago. The missile has a 120 kilometer range and Iran was supposed to get 150 of them. But pressure from the US convinced China to halt the shipments. Iran ended up with only 75 missiles. The C-802 is fairly primitive, with rudimentary electronics (guidance and targeting systems.) North Korea has apparently been providing Iran with the technology needed to improve the C-802. North Korea has a lot more experience in missile development, and Iran has a lot of engineers, scientists and hard currency. Both nations have denied that any such arrangement exists, although in the past North Korea has sometimes admitted complicity when there was a chance the US or Japan would