From this piece:
the team’s code names had been chosen way back in the winter of 1995 when it had come together to conduct three nuclear explosions. They had to be aborted because news of the preparations leaked out and then prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao backed down in the face of international pressure. The bomb team put together in 1995 was not disbanded.
Thank you for posting these nice excerpts on Indian and Pakistani path to nuclear weapon states. That is what they are regardless whether a party to the NPT. But what this shows is that an arms control approach does not stop anyone to build it’s nuclear weapons stocks. From deterrence with originally 5 weapons to current arsenal shows the path for a patient state. The DRPK had been following the patch and Iran has placed itself pretty much on the threshold. Proposals on arms control arrangements are good music for North Koreans. Iran’s suggestion to stop at the 60 % max uranium enrichment and closing of IAEA verification of the verification of the correctness and completeness of its declarations are steps on the same path. A step forward in undermining the credibility of the NPT verification regime.