Alarmingly, Iran is within three months of having nuclear warheads, according to the negotiators, and is therefore about to become another nuclear-armed North Korea. North Korea also cheated on the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and developed its own nukes and ballistic missiles. In fact, there is an alliance ― Iran co-finances North Korea’s nuclear tests, North Korea has already staged nuclear tests for Iran, and Iranian missile telemetry is derived from North Korean telemetry. So Iran has long been collaborating with a notorious rogue and cheater.

Any international agreement trying to delay Iran’s imminent capability needs to acknowledge that the NPT negotiations with North Korea failed because that nation has long spurned any arms control obligations. Like North Korea, Iran is engaged in nuclear blackmail ― cheating to break out of international constraints. Moreover, the end of sanctions against Iran will surely increase its ability to covertly acquire nuclear weapons.

The most dangerous threat from Iran is a small nuclear suitcase bomb supplied to Hezbollah, Hamas or al Qaeda terrorists, which can only be deterred by effective and active intelligence operations. Will the most directly threatened Israelis, who have Iranian generals commanding terrorists around their borders, succeed in preventing a nuclear terrorist attack? Iran could have such a bomb within three months. It may even secretly have it now.

Alternatively, the Iranians could use a ballistic missile to detonate a nuclear warhead in space that uses an electromagnetic pulse to totally disrupt the electric power grids of Israel, Europe or the United States. This is an equally dangerous threat.

Analysis of some details of the new framework agreement is instructive. The very existence of Iranian ballistic missile programs indicates the intention to build nuclear warheads. Ballistic missiles are too expensive to develop, test and produce without warheads that are weapons of mass destruction. With help from the North Koreans, Pakistanis’ A.Q. Khan network, Russians and Chinese, the Iranians are developing long-range ballistic missiles.

It is possible that the Iranians already have acquired a small number of low-yield nuclear weapons from North Korea or have stored them there. China and Russia, as well as North Korea and Pakistan, actually helped Iranian nuclear and missile development efforts.

In sum, the stakes are very high for verification, and any agreement must include constraints on the covert Iranian channel to North Korea.