N. Korea Gunboat Shipment Helps Iran Expand Military

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Byline: Bill Gertz, THE WASHINGTON TIMES

North Korea is sending a shipment of gunboats to Iran that U.S. intelligence agencies say will be converted into guided-missile warships.

The gunboats were loaded onto an Iranian freighter at the North Korean port of Nampo over the past two weeks. The shipment is believed to be headed to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, U.S. intelligence officials told The Washington Times.

The shipment, which is being monitored by U.S. intelligence, highlights growing military cooperation among states identified by President Bush as forming an "axis of evil.

The Iranian ship, the Iran Meead, was tracked from its home port of Bandar Abbas to the Chinese port of Tianjin in late February and then to Nampo, where it picked up the gunboats. …