• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

USA Posts

Breaking News Stories from US and Around the World

North Korea’s foreign minister visits Iran after U.S. sanctions are reimposed

August 8, 2018 by www.nbcnews.com Leave a Comment

Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.

LONDON — Kim Jong Un’s top diplomat held talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran on Wednesday, just a day after President Donald Trump reimposed sanctions on the Islamic republic.

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho also met with Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif Tuesday in an effort to bolster longstanding relations between the countries.

Ri’s trip to Iran was the first by a senior North Korean official since President Hassan Rouhani was re-elected last year. It also follows Trump’s June meeting with Kim in Singapore.

The North Korean foreign minister said he had briefed Rouhani on the nuclear negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington, according to Iran’s Donya-e-Eqtesad newspaper.

Iran and North Korea have maintained relations for decades.

Soo Kim, a former CIA intelligence analyst who specializes in North Korea, said that the Iran visit sent a message to the international community.

The North Koreans were taking a “two-pronged” diplomatic approach by continuing denuclearization negotiations with the U.S. while also pursuing diplomacy and “ally-building” with countries such as Iran.

“It’s a way to keep us on our toes,” Soo Kim added. “They’re playing a game with us, they’re giving us hope that things are going to progress but at the same time they’re not really showing us anything concrete.”

Trump’s announcement that the U.S. would withdraw from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal was followed by Tehran advising Pyongyang not to believe any promises made at the June 12 summit with Kim Jong Un.

In an interview with NBC News’ Lester Holt in September, Rouhani also warned that Washington pulling out of the pact “would carry a high cost” because “no one will trust America again.” The Iranian president added that “the greatest capital that any country has is trust and credibility.”

North Korea achieved several technical milestones in its weapons program last year — launching its first three intercontinental ballistic missiles and conducting its most powerful nuclear test to date.

Pyongyang has tested a total of 23 missiles since Trump took office, and 15 of those tests involved nuclear-capable ballistic missiles. The November 2017 launch of which appeared to be an intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, flew farther than any of Kim Jong Un’s previous tests. The North claimed it could reach anywhere in the mainland U.S.

However, analysts say it’s hard to prove or debunk North Korea’s claim that it could hit faraway American targets such as New York or Washington.

While Iran has maintained its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, before the June summit with Trump North Korea had repeatedly threatened to attack the U.S. and South Korea.

Andrei Lankov, a professor of Korean studies at Kookmin University in Seoul, said that there was “active cooperation of nuclear and missile issues” between Iran and North Korea.

He added that Pyongyang and Tehran “do exchange knowledge, they do probably exchange technology,” describing it as “an open secret” that’s been going on for many years.

Lankov said North Korea has been selling arms to Iran at least since the mid-1980s, including missiles used by Tehran during the Iran-Iraq War.

He described Iran as a “very profitable partner” for North Korea.

Lankov added: “North Koreans tend to make alliances with anti-American radicals of any kind.”

Trump has called the Iran nuclear agreement “the worst deal ever” and has demanded Tehran end its military support for the Syrian government and regional militant groups like Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

The U.S. is also seeking to get Iran to curb its ballistic missile program, which was not restrained as part of the nuclear deal. Tehran has maintained that its missiles are not designed to carry nuclear weapons.

Critics of Trump’s decision say that the Iranians had acceded to international inspections and dramatically reduced their nuclear program as a result of the landmark agreement. So it was working, and by stepping away from a pact that took years to negotiate and imposed important concessions on Iran, the Trump administration was making it less likely that Tehran wouid come to the negotiating table again soon, they say.

Before Trump withdrew from the deal, France’s Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Angela Merkel and Britain’s Theresa May had pleaded with the president to give them leeway to address his concerns in a “side deal,” a new negotiation to limit Iran’s missiles, extend the term of the original Iran deal, and confront Iran’s support for terrorism.

Boris Johnson, who was Britain’s foreign secretary when Trump removed the U.S. from the pact in May, highlighted that the U.K. and other European countries viewed the nuclear deal “as vital for our shared security” and were “fully committed to upholding it.”

Despite warming relations with the U.S., North Korea remains subject to U.S. sanctions.

And like Kim Jong Un’s government, Iran argues that sanctions are not conducive to negotiations.

“Negotiations and sanctions at the same time is meaningless,” Rouhani said in a televised address on Monday. “If someone stands in front of his rival or enemy and pushes a knife against their arm and seeks talks, the response is that he should first put the knife in his pocket and come to the negotiating table and use logic.”

North Korea’s Ri has also delivered a scathing attack on the Trump administration for enforcing sanctions at the same time as trying to negotiate the denuclearizaton of North Korea.

Speaking at a security conference in Singapore on Saturday, Ri said Pyongyang would not act unilaterally and demanded that the U.S. undertake “confidence building” measures during negotiations.

“Confidence is not a sentiment to be cultivated overnight,” he said.

  • 'Defiant message' as North Korea's Kim rides white horse on sacred mountain
  • 'Defiant message' as North Korea's Kim rides white horse on sacred mountain
  • Calling North Korea's Bluff Will Force China to Crack Down
  • 'Great respect' between US and North Korea: Trump
  • North Korea Wants to Be Our Enemy
  • Huawei Reportedly Helped North Korea Build Its 3G Wireless Network in Violation of Sanctions
  • Son of high-profile South Korean defector 'moves to North Korea'
  • North Korea bizarre propaganda photo-shoot sees Kim Jong-un mount white horse in mountains
  • North Korea And South Korea Agree To Form Joint Olympic Hockey Team
  • North Korea - Holiday in a Secret State
  • Xi Jinping and Kim Jong Un hail 'immortal' China-North Korea relationship
  • North Korea played like it was 'waging war' in Pyongyang match, says South
Kim Jong Il North Korea Millitary 7" Bobblehead in Collector's Box
5.0★ / check it now at Amazon
Kim Jong Un North Korea 7" Bobblehead in Collector's Box
4.4★ / check it now at Amazon
Kim Jong-Un's Things To Nuke Funny Notepad 4.25" x 5.5" Red, North Korea Gag Gift
5.0★ / check it now at Amazon
Propaganda Poster Pack - North Korea's Kim Jong-Un & Kim Jong-Il 13"x15" Art Poster Prints
4.5★ / check it now at Amazon
Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West
$14.3
Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite
$30.99
Somewhere Inside: One Sister’s Captivity in North Korea and the Other’s Fight to Bring Her Home
4.5★ / $9.86
China And North Korea: From Comrades-in-arms To Allies At Arm's Length
5.0★ / $30.95
Escaping North Korea: Defiance and Hope in the World's Most Repressive Country
$26.95
North Korea Undercover: Inside the World's Most Secret State
2.0★ / $41.91
Juche: A Christian Study of North Korea's State Religion
$10.56
Dear Leader: North Korea's senior propagandist exposes shocking truths behind the regime
4.0★ / $4.75
Living the Juche Lie | North Korea's Kim Dynasty
$5.95
Exposing North Korea's Menacing Leader: Kim Jong Un's Plot for a Psychological War (Spiritual Interview Series)
$14.95
Clinton's Foreign Policy in Somalia, Bosnia, Haiti, and North Korea (Essays in Public Policy)
5.0★ / check it now at Amazon
Criminal Sovereignty: Understanding North Korea's Illicit International Activities
check it now at Amazon
Axis of Evil World Tour: An American’s Travels in Iran, Iraq, and North Korea
$19.95
Taking Out North Korea's Super Missile: (The Axis of Evil & West Coast 11/26)
4.0★ / $5.98
Kim Jong-Il: North Korea's Dear Leader
3.1★ / $26.6
A Moment of Crisis: Jimmy Carter, The Power of a Peacemaker, and North Korea's Nuclear Ambitions
$16.16
Over the Line: North Korea's Negotiating Strategy
$1.9
Over the Line : North Korea's Negotiating Strategy
$18.93
North Korea's Undeclared War: 1953-
$29.96
Without You, There Is No Us: Undercover Among the Sons of North Korea's Elite
$10.99
Without You, There Is No Us: My secret life teaching the sons of North Korea’s elite
4.3★ / check it now at Amazon
Axis of Evil World Tour - An American's Travels in Iran, Iraq and North Korea
$2.99
Without You, There Is No Us by Suki Kim- A 15-minute Summary & Analysis: My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite
check it now at Amazon
Kim Jong-Il, Revised and Updated: Kim Jong-il: North Korea's Dear Leader, Revised and Updated Edition
$16.99
Inside the Red Box: North Korea's Post-totalitarian Politics (Contemporary Asia in the World)
$36.64
Bureau 39: North Korea's Super Criminals
check it now at Amazon
North Korea's foreign minister visits Iran after U.S. sanctions are reimposed have 1489 words, post on www.nbcnews.com at August 8, 2018. This is cached page on USA Posts. If you want remove this page, please contact us.

Filed Under: World songbun in north korea, songbun north korea, north korea songbun

Primary Sidebar

RSS Recent Stories

  • India Taunts Beijing by Flying Dalai Lama to Region near China Border
  • Americans Are Too Pampered and Neurotic to Fight a Civil War
  • How Domestic Violence Spilled Over Into Albuquerque Terror
  • Netflix’s ‘The Carter’ Makes ‘The Gray Man’ Look Like Child’s Play
  • QAnon Conspiracy Theorists Have a New Cure-All: $120,000 TVs
  • Aubrey Plaza Electrifies In ‘Emily The Criminal’

Sponsored Links

  • The billionaire battle for the metaverse
  • The Beatles and the art of teamwork
  • The new normal is already here. Get used to it
  • 2021’s biggest stories were covid-19 and America’s presidential transition
  • How American stocks could continue to climb
  • Which is The Economist’s country of the year for 2021?
  • The hidden costs of cutting Russia off from SWIFT
  • After a shocker in 2021, where might inflation go in 2022?
  • Has the pandemic shown inflation to be a fiscal phenomenon?
  • Bank of England raises interest rates for first time in three years
Copyright © 2022 USA Posts. Power by Wordpress.
Home - About Us - Contact Us - Disclaimers - DMCA - Privacy Policy - Submit your story