A long conversation between the North Korean ambassador to Tehran and the head of the Muslim humanitarian organization concludes with assurances of "unremitting efforts" to help North Korea overcome the crisis. The regime has refused the help offered by Beijing and Seoul. Catholic source tells AsiaNews: "The relations are good and the North has long been suffering from drought. But the diplomacy of the peninsula is not changing".

Seoul (AsiaNews) - The North Korea government has asked for and received humanitarian aid from the Iranian Red Crescent to counter what it terms "the worst drought in a century." This is confirmed by the Islamic Republic’s main news agency, citing the director of the humanitarian organization Seyed Amir Mohsen Ziaee. The official had a long talk with the ambassador from Pyongyang to Tehran, Kang Sam-hyon, after which he guaranteed "every effort" to help the country.

Ziaee said Iran, "feels a moral obligation to help every nation in need from the humanitarian point of view. Our government will spare no efforts to improve the situation of North Korea. " Kang, who spoke in the name of Prime Minister Pak Pong-ju, requested equipment to save the crops and other forms of aid to support the population.

It is impossible to verify the claims of the regime led by Kim Jong-un, in the absence of international observers. However, given the ongoing drought  both the governments of South Korea and China had offered aid to Pyongyang, which was rejected.

The diplomatic tensions shaking the regime, increasingly isolated by the international community because of repeated and unauthorized nuclear tests, seem to have reached even Beijing.

Since taking power the historical ally of the North Korean government Xi Jinping, in fact, seems less willing to tolerate the excesses of the nearby and started to reduce the sending of economic and humanitarian aid.

On the contrary, the relations between Pyongyang and Tehran seem to enjoy good health. The Kim regime was among the first to recognize the Islamic revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979, and since then has had  a direct relationship with Iran. Apart from a brief period of tension during the long war with Iraq - during which the regime tried to build ties with Saddam Hussein - North Korea supported Iran in military and scientific terms.

A Catholic source that work with the North Koreans in the South told AsiaNews that "it is impossible to" learn something more: "Since the time of Khomeini, the news regarding this bilateral relationship is only reported by the official news agencies of the two countries, which is not exactly the most objective in the world. Certainly there is a drought in the North, and certainly Pyongyang today would not accept aid from Seoul because they do not want to look weak. It is possible that there is new and stronger ties between Iran and North Korea, but nothing suggests a new diplomatic policy”.

 

• NORTH
• KOREA
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• IRAN
• aid
• drought
• red
• crescent
• Kim
• regime