‘Alarming’: North Korea sends delegation to Iran amid suspicions of greater military cooperation

Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Wednesday in a single-sentence report said the North’s delegation, headed by External Economic Relations Minister Yun Jong-ho, left the previous day for Iran.

It is rare for a ranking North Korean official to visit Iran.

The last known visit to the Middle Eastern country by a ranking North Korean official occurred in 2019 when Pak Chol-min, then North Korean vice-chairman of the Supreme People’s Assembly, visited Tehran for talks on bilateral ties.

“Both of the two countries are under international sanctions, but they have things to exchange for mutual benefits. For example, Iran can give the North its much-needed crude oil in return for the North’s military know-how,” he said.

While under international sanctions for their weapons programmes, Pyongyang and Tehran have maintained friendly relations since the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1973.

A 2019 report by the US Defence Intelligence Agency showed Iran’s Shahab-3 ballistic missiles were developed based on North Korea’s midrange Rodong missiles.

The North had shipped about 7,000 containers filled with munitions and other military equipment to Russia since last year to help Moscow’s war efforts in Ukraine, South Korea’s defence minister Shin Won-sik said last month.

Since the start of 2022, North Korea has used Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a distraction to ramp up its weapons tests and has also aligned with Moscow over the conflict in line with its efforts to break out of diplomatic isolation and join a united front against the US.

Iran also allegedly provided Russia with drones for the war.

In 2006, the chief commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards publicly acknowledged that his country had obtained Scud-B and Scud-C