Episode 56: Iran, North Korea, Pakistan and Iraq - the race to Nuclear weapons

In the 1990s, North Korea acquired access to Pakistani centrifuge technology and designs from scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who had directed the militarization of Pakistan's nuclear program. In exchange, Pakistan received North Korean missile technology.  Through his job at URENCO, A.Q Khan methodically stole classified plans for a centrifuge, that would create bomb-grade uranium. In the fall of 1980, Israeli military intelligence reported that the Osiris nuclear reactor, 12 miles southeast of Baghdad, would become operational between July and November of 1981. Failure was not an option for Israel and PM Menachem Begin gave the go ahead to bomb Iraq's nuclear reactor.