Robert E. Kelly, an American academic based in Busan, South Korea, who has studied North Korea’s nuclear program, says he fears the U.S. strikes on the Iranian facilities in Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz could spur Iran to build a bomb faster.
“That’s what I’m really worried about, that this is going to deeply incentivize the nuclear hawks in Iran to sprint for a nuclear weapon,” Kelly told CBC News. “[They are going to say], ‘We should have sprinted for a bomb 10 years ago. We should’ve been like North Korea.'”