North Korea Sends Delegation to Iran for the first since 2019

By Editor Last updated Apr 26, 2024

FILE PHOTO: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un applauds during a photo session with students and young workers in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on May 1, 2022. KCNA via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. REUTERS IS UNABLE TO INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THIS IMAGE. NO THIRD PARTY SALES. SOUTH KOREA OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN SOUTH KOREA./File Photo

A high-level North Korean economic delegation was in Iran on Wednesday, the North’s state media said, for what would be the two countries’ first known talks since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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.

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.

Iran North Korea