Iranian Foreign Minister Set to Meet with North Korean Leaders ‘Soon’
by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Iran’s foreign minister Mohammed Javad Zarif is planning to meet with North Korean leaders “soon,” according to the Islamic Republic’s state-run IRNA television.
On Sunday Zarif cited the “struggle” under which both North Korea and Iran now labor since the imposition of new sanctions by the U.S.
North Korean news agency NK News reported that an additional delegation led by North Korean vice-foreign minister Pak Myong Guk had departed Pyongyang over the weekend, with Iran and Syria on its travel itinerary.
The planned meeting referred to by Zarif will come on the heels of a flurry of diplomatic visits between the two pariah countries, the most recent last week between North Korean leader Kim Jon Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok.
In spite of a report by NK News, a North Korean news agency, that the trips are simply designed “to strengthen ties with [North Korea’s] traditional friends and to increase trade with these countries,” a meeting between Ri Yong Ho, North Korea’s top diplomat, and Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad last year was indicative of a shared purpose that was less neutral.
In that meeting, Ri cited the need for “increasing coordination” between member states of the Non-Aligned Movement like Iran, Syria, and North Korea, since the enemy faced by each of these nations was “one and the same.”