N. Korea Helping Iraq With Scuds?

W A S H I N G T O N, Aug. 10 -- The U.S. intelligence community fears new reports may indicate Iraq is financing construction of a Scud missile assembly plant in Sudan, enlisting North Korea’s help, ABCNEWS has learned.

Sources say North Korean personnel would build and run the plant, with the assembled Scuds to be held in Sudan for Iraq’s future use — a prospect that worries U.S. officials.

The intelligence community has two separate reports that indicate such a deal is in the works. If they prove true, it raises significant concerns that Saddam Hussein is back in business trying to make Scud missiles, although outside Iraq.

North Korea’s involvement indicates that nation is continuing to sponsor destabilizing missile proliferation deals around the world, even as it publicly claims it is giving up its own missile development program. U.S. intelligence estimates Iraq still has more than two dozen Scud missiles hidden in its desert since Operation Desert Storm 10 years ago.

Rumors of such a deal have been making the rounds among arms dealers and intelligence analysts for months now. But in the last several weeks, the United States has intercepted communications that lend credence to earlier initial reports from an agent for a foreign intelligence service.

Now, the CIA is trying to assess whether the deal has actually been finalized, or alternatively, whether one of the key foreign players is for some reason laying a false paper trail to implicate all three countries.

Three Threats, In the Shadows U.S. officials insist they have not come to a final decision on whether the information is true. But they also note it could be months before they really know for sure. The intelligence they do have in hand is preliminary — it would be some time before an actual factory could be built and missile construction begins. That’s the type of ironclad evidence U.S. intelligence officials would like to see.

But the matter, true or not, underscores just how little U.S. intelligence really knows about current developments in Iraq, North Korea and Sudan. All three countries are perceived as potential threats, but the inner workings of their governments are virtual mysteries to American intelligence.