North Korea on Wednesday announced its support for Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, and denounced what it called “illegal” attacks on Iran by the United States and Israel.
North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who said Pyongyang “respected” the appointment of Khamenei to succeed his father, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed at the beginning of Operation Epic Fury last week.
“Regarding the recent official announcement that the Iranian Assembly of Experts has elected a new leader of the Islamic Revolution, we respect the right and choice of the Iranian people to elect their Supreme Leader,” the foreign ministry said, according to KCNA.
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“We express grave concern and strongly condemn the aggression of the United States and Israel, which, by launching an unlawful military attack against Iran, are undermining the foundations of regional peace and security and increasing instability in the international landscape,” the statement added.
The North Korean spokesperson said the U.S. and Israeli effort to destroy the “political system and territorial integrity of a country” should be “condemned and rejected by the entire world.”
Daejeon University professor Song Seong-jong, formerly with South Korea’s ministry of defense, told the UK Guardian on Monday that the Iran war has probably reinforced North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un’s conviction that nuclear weapons are an indispensable shield against U.S. military action.
“Kim must have thought Iran was attacked like that because it didn’t have nuclear weapons,” Song said.
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Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) senior adviser Sydney Seiler said Trump’s “willingness to use military force and threats for negotiating leverage” would make Kim “nervous and less likely to hastily seek talks,” although there were not any signs that North Korea was willing to bargain its nukes away before Operation Epic Fury, or before Donald Trump returned to office, for that matter.
There has been some speculation that Trump will meet with Kim during, or after, his upcoming trip to China for meetings with dictator Xi Jinping. Trump said in October that he sought a meeting with Kim during his visit to South Korea, and while Seoul heartily approved of the idea, there was no response from Pyongyang.
Kim seemed amenable to talking with Trump after the U.S. president returned to office, telling KCNA in September that he had “fond memories” of Trump, and would be willing to sit for talks, “if the United States drops the absurd obsession with denuclearizing us and accepts reality.”
