An official one North Korean delegation headed by a financial officer left for Iran, as North Korean state news agency KCNA reported today on the occasion of a rare visit that, according to experts, raises concerns about increased bilateral cooperation.

The mission led by the North Korean Minister of Foreign Economic Relations Yun Jong Ho left Pyongyang on Monday for Iran, KCNA reported in a brief statement of a proposal without elaborating.

This visit reveals her intention Pyongyang to expand and strengthen its relations with Tehran, possibly providing Iran with weapons that could help it in its confrontation with Israel, said Hong Min, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification.

“This visit deserves a lot of attention, given the current situation involving Tehran and Jerusalem,” he told AFP, adding that Iran and North Korea are longtime allies and have already cooperated on weapons programs in the 1980s. .

In the same way that Pyongyang supplied weapons to Russia, it could do the same to Tehran “in return for reparations such as oil and financial aid,” the analyst adds.

This visit is taking place while North Korea has strengthened its military ties with Moscow in recent months.

According to Seoul, North Korea sent Russia about 7,000 containers of weapons intended for use in Ukraine in exchange for possibly providing technical assistance with the North Korean spy satellite program.

Russia also vetoed a UN Security Council draft resolution extending for a year the mandate of the panel of experts monitoring the implementation of UN sanctions against Pyongyang.

Iran and Russia are also close allies militarily and politically, with Moscow resorting to Iranian drones as part of its offensive in Ukraine.

This North Korean visit to Iran comes after Tehran’s first drone and missile attack against Israeli soil on the night of April 13-14.

GA