(Kyodo) _ Iran has been concealing its underground military nuclear facilities with help from North Korea, Jane"s Defence Weekly reported in its Jan. 25 edition.
The report said Iran and North Korea have signed joint-venture contracts in which selected companies are involved in "intensive construction and maintenance work for massive shielding of the tunnels branching to the facilities at Natanz and Isfahan."

Citing diplomatic sources, the report said the Iranian authorities are "currently on high alert in anticipation of air strikes against their facilities." The construction project is approved by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei, according to the report.

The project, led by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, began several months ago. The tunnel project includes the construction of 10,000 square meters of underground halls, with tunnels measuring hundreds of meters branching off from each, the report said.

A delegation of North Koreans including a leading government expert on underground construction had by June 2005 arrived in Tehran to help design and construct the underground tunnel network, the report said.