MOSCOW, January 31 (RIA Novosti) - Iran dismissed Wednesday media reports of its nuclear cooperation with North Korea.
Last week, Russian media quoted Britain's Daily Telegraph as saying that Pyongyang was assisting the Islamic Republic in preparing an underground nuclear test, similar to the one that North Korea conducted last October, provoking international condemnation.
"Such unsubstantiated reports are printed with the sole purpose of misleading public opinion about Iran's positive actions on the nuclear issue, as well as Iran's rights arising from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty," the Iranian Embassy to Moscow said in a statement.
The diplomatic mission insisted that talented young Iranian scientists learned how to enrich uranium for peaceful ends on their own, and that Tehran has repeatedly demonstrated the transparency of its nuclear activities to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog.
Iran has been the source of international concerns since it resumed uranium enrichment a year ago, which some Western countries suspect is part of a covert nuclear weapons program, although Tehran has consistently denied the allegation.
In response to Iran's unwillingness to give up its nuclear ambitions, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution in December with sanctions against Iran that banned activities involving uranium enrichment, chemical reprocessing, heavy water-based projects, and the production of nuclear weapons delivery systems.
