A rare foreign visit from a high-profile North Korean delegation to Iran has been reported by the state-run KCNA news agency. The last publicly announced trip from Pyongyang officials to Tehran was in 2019. The delegation, led by North Korea’s minister for external economic relations, Yun Jong Ho, departed for Iran by plane on Tuesday, as confirmed by the agency, without disclosing further details about the visit.
In February, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un conveyed a congratulatory message to Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on the 45th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. Kim expressed confidence in the expansion and development of the traditional relations of friendship and cooperation between the two countries in various fields, which were forged on the road of joint struggle against imperialism.
Concerns have been raised by the US State Department regarding the alleged cooperation between Tehran and Pyongyang in nuclear and ballistic missile development. Both countries are subject to harsh international sanctions due to their weapons programs. South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) has been monitoring the situation to determine if North Korean technology was utilized in Iran’s ballistic missiles launched against Israel, given the history of missile cooperation between North Korea and Iran.
KCNA dismissed the allegations as baseless and untrue, suggesting they were an attempt to divert attention from the Middle East crisis caused by the US’s misguided hegemonic policies onto another nation.
The US and its allies have also pointed fingers at North Korea and Iran for allegedly supplying artillery shells and drones to Russia during the Ukraine conflict. Both Pyongyang and Tehran have refuted these accusations, with Russia maintaining that it primarily uses domestically manufactured weapons for its military endeavors.
