(Bloomberg) -- North Korea sent its highest-level delegation to Iran in about five years as the US raised concerns that arms sales from Pyongyang and Tehran have helped fuel conflicts in the Middle East and Russia’s war in Ukraine.

In a rare public report of the trip, the official Korean Central News Agency said in a one-sentence dispatch the North Korean delegation led by External Economic Relations Minister Yun Jong Ho left Pyongyang for Tehran on Tuesday. Yun had traveled to Russia earlier in April and has featured prominently in state media as a key player in trade between Pyongyang and Moscow.

While North Korea is unlikely to disclose further details about the trip, it highlights the military cooperation between the two countries and their defiance of the US over the years. North Korea last sent a top member of its parliament to Iran in 2019. 

“The Ukraine war has paved the way for cooperation between North Korea and Iran,” said Ban Kil Joo, a research professor at Korea University. “North Korea is sending an economic delegation now but it will be the beginning of a wider military cooperation to follow between the two.”

The US has long accused Iran and North Korea of military cooperation in the missile and nuclear fields that ran from the 1980s and into the first decade of the 2000s. It had tapered off in recent years due to sanctions as well as the development of domestic weapons production in both countries.

Washington has charged the two with sanctions violations in sending arms to Russia for its war in Ukraine, During a visit to South Korea this month, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in return for the arms, Moscow is offering support that aids the weapons programs of both North Korea and Iran.

The State Department’s senior official for North Korea, Jung Pak, said in an interview this week that there is now a real risk the high-profile nature of North Korea’s relationship with Russia could make its armaments more appealing to other groups around the world.

Read more: Russia’s North Korea Embrace Could Embolden Kim Jong Un, US Says

South Korea’s spy agency issued a rare warning last week about cooperation between Iran and North Korea, saying there is a possibility Pyongyang could have helped Iran in its attack on Israel. South Korea previously said North Korean weapons have been used by Hamas, a US-designated terrorist group, against Israel as the war in Gaza drags on.

While there have not been any specific allegations of recent arms transfers between North Korea and Iran, there are items that each could want from the other. Energy-strained North Korea could benefit from Iran’s oil and might be looking to acquire drones like those Tehran has sent to Russia, arms experts Lami Kim said, adding Iran’s nuclear program could receive a boost from North Korean technology.

“Further military cooperation between the two countries is very likely,” said Kim, a professor of security studies at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies. 

For its part — and despite a recent leak of hacked documents that indicates otherwise — Iran has repeatedly denied selling Russia drones for use in Ukraine but said it sent a “small number” before the February 2022 invasion.

Moscow and Pyongyang have denied the arms transfers accusations despite a multitude of satellite photos released by research groups and the US government showing the flow of weapons from North Korea to Russia and then to munitions dumps near the border with Ukraine.

“It appears to be part of broader efforts to build a coalition against the US,” said Koo Gi Yeon, a research professor at Seoul National University’s Asia Center, referring to the trip by the North Korean delegation.

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.


North Korea sends a delegation to Iran in a

 growing effort to break its diplomatic

 isolation


 In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, meets Zhao Leji, chairman of the National People’s Congress of China, in Pyongyang, North Korea on April 13, 2024. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File)Read More

 Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, attends a wreath-laying ceremony at Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi, Vietnam, March 2, 2019. A high-level North Korean economic delegation is traveling to Iran for what would be the two countries’ first talks since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the heavily sanctioned nations align in face of their separate confrontations with the United States. (Jorge Silva/Pool Photo via AP, File)

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks during a press conference at the American Diplomacy House in Seoul, on April 17, 2024. A high-level North Korean economic delegation is traveling to Iran for what would be the two countries’ first talks since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the heavily sanctioned nations align in face of their separate confrontations with the United States. (Jung Yeon-je/Pool Photo via AP, File)

BY KIM TONG-HYUNG
April 24, 2024

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A high-level North Korean economic delegation was on its way to Iran, the North’s state media said Wednesday, for what would be the two countries’ first known talks since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Embracing the idea of a “new Cold War,” North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is pushing to build up cooperation with countries confronting the United States, as his intensified weapons tests prompted the U.S. and South Korea to expand their military drills.

Pyongyang’s delegation led by Yun Jung Ho, North Korea’s minster of external economic relations, flew out Tuesday for the trip to Iran, official Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday. State media did not immediately provide further details.

Pyongyang and Tehran are among the few governments in the world that support Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and both have been accused of providing Russia with military equipment.

The last known time North Korea sent senior officials to Iran was in August 2019, when a group led by Pak Chol Min, vice chair of Pyongyang’s rubber-stamp parliament, made a weeklong visit. The two countries had active diplomatic exchanges until North Korea sealed its borders in an effort to stave off the pandemic, before a cautious reopening in 2023.


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South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles affairs with the North, did not immediately comment Yun’s visit to Iran.

North Korea has made efforts for months to boost the visibility of its ties with Russia and China as Kim attempts to break out of diplomatic isolation and join a united front against the U.S.

In 2023, Kim visited Russia’s Far East for a rare summit with Putin, which highlighted the countries’ expanding military cooperation, including the North’s alleged transfers of artillery shells, missiles, and other munitions to Russia.

Earlier this month, Kim hosted top Chinese official Zhao Leji, who heads the ceremonial parliament and ranks third in the ruling Communist Party hierarchy. It was the highest-level meeting between the countries in years.

On Wednesday, Kim Yo Jong, the North Korean leader’s powerful sister, slammed the latest rounds of U.S.-South Korean joint military drills and insisted that the allies will never break the North’s determination to build up “our overwhelming and most powerful military muscle.”

The statement comes a week after U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield called for the international community to be alert to the possibility of military cooperation between North Korea, Iran and Russia. Iran has been accused of providing drones to Russia for use in the war against Ukraine.

“We are concerned about … the Iranians providing weapons to the Russians and the Russians also supporting efforts to help (North Korea) expand their own research into developing weapons. And certainly, that would be the case with Iran as well,” she said.