A wide-ranging partnership between Tehran and Pyongyang Analysis by Eurasia Review

Eurasia Review has published an article about the history and current state of the partnership between North Korea and Iran. Caliber.Az reprints the article.

The partnership that has existed between North Korea and Iran in recent decades has become the subject of international attention. The two countries have established an enviable level of cooperation, especially in the field of military technology. Their cooperation mainly stems from resistance to international sanctions imposed by the United States and its partners, but also from related geopolitical visions. Although the Iran-North Korea partnership is largely shrouded in secrecy, much information is publicly available and shows that it is growing stronger.

Historical context

Persian-Korean relations began with a cultural exchange during the Three Kingdoms era of Korea, approximately 1500-1600 years ago via the ancient Chinese Silk Road. At that time, the two nations exchanged glass, golden swords and daggers, silver dishes, clay busts, various figures. After the end of World War II and the subsequent establishment of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in 1948, the Imperial State of Iran under the rule of the Pahlavi dynasty did not initially establish relations with the new communist Korea, having cultivated good relations with the Republic of Korea as an American ally. Seoul and Tehran officially established diplomatic relations in 1962.

Both countries were part of the Western Bloc and America’s closest partners in the Middle and Far East regions. However, in April 1973, the Shah’s Iran established relations with North Korea. In the following years, the two countries concluded numerous bilateral agreements related to trade exchange (1973), cultural cooperation (1974) and media (1978), but Iran’s overall relations with the DPRK lagged far behind the cooperation that took place with South Korea. 

The beginnings of building a relationship

Diplomatic relations between the two countries improved significantly after the victory of the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The pro-American regime was overthrown and a group came to power that was hostile to both the USA and the USSR and was looking for its way in the international arena. In accordance with the new reality, a serious construction of relations between Tehran and Pyongyang has been initiated. Cooperation was initiated in the educational, scientific, cultural and military spheres. In the 1980s, North Korea became known as a reliable supplier of weapons to other countries, including Iran. In March 1980, three Iranian planes flew to N. Korea and returned with medical supplies and artillery shells, thus beginning military cooperation.

Despite the common antagonism towards the USA, the national interests of N. Korea and Iran were often not compatible. A good example is the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-89. Pyongyang provided Tehran with military aid during the war (due to which Baghdad severed diplomatic relations with Pyongyang in October 1980), but at the same time, for its own interests, it wanted to maintain normal relations with the Iraqi government. In 1982, North Korean authorities secretly invited an Iraqi delegation to Pyongyang, but the Iraqi government sent an unofficial representative. Talks to normalize relations failed, but the attempt revealed that Pyongyang did not ideologically support Iran’s war against Saddam Hussein. Indeed, the Kim dynasty considered Hussein an important ally in the Middle East.

Igniting cooperation

North Korean arms sales to Iran have expanded into extensive military cooperation, including the development and exchange of ballistic technology. By the end of the war, there were 300 North Korean military instructors in Iran. Although China and Iran signed a 10-year military cooperation agreement in 1991, North Korea became Tehran’s main supplier of missile technology during the 1990s. Also, in those years, the DPRK supplied Iran with artillery weapons, anti-aircraft guns, mortars, ammunition, tanks, small arms, naval mines, anti-tank and surface-to-air missile systems. In 1995, the North Koreans sent Scud missiles to the Iranians, and in November 1999, US intelligence discovered the transfer of 12 Nodong missile engines from the DPRK to Iran.

DPRK-Iran cooperation in the field of ballistic technology continued at an accelerated pace. In December 2009, a shipment of North Korean weapons (rocket launchers and parts of surface-to-air missiles), said to be on its way to Iran, was intercepted in Thailand. In addition to the arms trade, the two countries actively exchange military knowledge, especially regarding special operations and underground facilities. North Korean instructors are believed to have trained Iranian officers in advanced infiltration techniques. In March 2013, North Korea, Iran and Syria blocked the UN Arms Trade Treaty, which aims to set “standards for all cross-border shipments of conventional weapons”.

Iran was and remains one of the rare countries in the world that is able to maintain good relations with both North and South Korea, which is a real skill considering the warring of the two states of the Korean people. Iran has often shown neutrality towards the Korean conflict. During crises such as the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan in March 2010 and the bombing of South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island in November 2010, Iranian media reported statements by North and South Korean media without siding with either side. In 2013, the Ar-Rahman mosque was opened in the premises of the Iranian embassy in Pyongyang, which made N. Korea became the only country besides Armenia that has a Shiite but not a Sunni mosque.

Ambivalences in relationships

 Bilateral relations cooled during the first term of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (2013-17). After the Iran nuclear deal was reached in July 2015, Rouhani pushed for trade ties with wealthy South Korea and subtly criticized Pyongyang. During South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s visit to Tehran in May 2016, Rouhani called for the removal of weapons of mass destruction and the peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula.

After US President Trump put Iran on “warning” in February 2017, Iranian officials expected the nuclear deal to be dissolved and Western sanctions to be reinstated. These fears encouraged solidarity with N. Korea, which also faced increased US sanctions. After US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced the revival of US sanctions against Iran in April 2017, Iran’s hardline Kayhan media outlet reported: “N. Korea has fulfilled all its obligations, and America has fulfilled none! And this is the story of the Americans themselves.” The Iranians realized that the freezing of the nuclear program and its eventual abolition does not mean that at some point the sanctions will not return.

Ballistic cooperation

The Iran nuclear deal never completely ended Iran-North Korea cooperation on ballistic missile development, but only made it more secretive. There are records of visits by North Korean ballistic and nuclear scientists to Iran from May 2015 onwards. Military cooperation between Tehran and Pyongyang is focused on the field of ballistic missiles. The partnership between Iran’s Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group (SHIG) and the Korea Mining and Development Trading Corporation (KOMID) has strengthened cooperation in the field of ballistic technology.

The progress of Iran’s ballistic program demonstrates the value of North Korean technology. Iran’s launch of the Khorramshahr ballistic missile in January 2017 confirmed the intensity of military cooperation between Tehran and Pyongyang. The Khorramshahr resembled the Musudan or Hwasong-10, a ballistic missile that Pyongyang tested eight times in 2016. While North Korea’s sale of R-27 engines to Iran has not been confirmed, reports of Iran’s purchase of Hwasong-10 missiles date back to 2005. Pressure from Iranian hardliners and the Islamic Revolution guard that oversees Iran’s ballistic missile program, prompted Rouhani to reconsider his critical stance toward the DPRK.

In August 2017, the President of the Presidium of the Supreme National Assembly DPRK, Kim Yong-nam, went on a 10-day trip to Iran and attended Rouhani’s second inauguration ceremony. Kim’s trip underscored the revitalization of bilateral relations. Ali Larijani, the hardline speaker of Iran’s parliament, told Kim: “Your stability in the face of American bullying is commendable.” Kim responded by praising Iran’s ballistic missile launches and declaring that “Tehran and Pyongyang have a common enemy.”

A new upswing in the relationship

Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018 further accelerated the development of relations. Over the past five years, Iran and North Korea have cooperated extensively in the ballistic technology sector while forging stronger economic ties. Ahead of Trump’s meeting with North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un in June 2018, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghassemi urged Kim to “remain on alert” because Trump is unpredictable and willing to undo agreements. Hours after the US imposed nuclear sanctions on Iran in August 2018, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho met with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif in Tehran. The meeting included an exchange of ideas on how to fight US sanctions and how to extract US concessions in negotiations on nuclear programs.

North Korea’s tests of the Hwasong-14 missile in July 2017 and the launch of the Hwasong-15 in November 2017 demonstrated cooperation between the two states, as the missiles had Iranian RD-250 engines with a thrust of 80 tons. In March 2019, UN experts received information that two North Korean arms companies were “extremely active in Iran”. SHIG and KOMID links were confirmed by a UN Panel of Experts report from February 2021. Also, North Korea’s hypersonic missile tests have sparked controversy over the transfer of that technology to Iran, which developed hypersonic weapons testing facilities in 2014.

Nuclear cooperation

There is increasing evidence that Iran’s cooperation with North Korea extends beyond the ballistic technology sector and includes nuclear technology. Iranian nuclear scientists were present at almost all the nuclear tests of the “Desert Kingdom”. As the nuclear program DPRK became more sophisticated in the 2000s, its nuclear assistance to Iran became more open. Since 2010, nuclear cooperation between the two countries has intensified significantly.

A Japanese newspaper claimed that 200 North Korean nuclear scientists were working at the Natanz uranium enrichment facilities in Iran in 2011. During the North Korean nuclear crises, Iranian politicians have changed their attitude towards the North Korean nuclear program depending on their political affiliation. Iranian reformists were more negative towards the DPRK than conservatives. Reformists believed that Iran could not afford a North Korean-style nuclear strategy for confrontation with America. In contrast, conservative hardliners pointed to North Korea’s open nuclear defiance of America as a positive example for Iran to follow.

Resistance to America

Before he became Iran’s Supreme Leader, then President Ayatollah Ali Khamenei visited N. Korea in 1989. The trip included a ride on the Pyongyang subway and a motorcade in front of cheering crowds. The intention was to send a strong message: North Korea and Iran, driven by mutual hostility towards the United States, are becoming close friends. On February 1, 2023, Chief of General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Mohammad Hossein Bagheri congratulated Pak Su-Il on his appointment as Chief of General Staff of the Korean People’s Army. Bagheri’s congratulatory message emphasizes the strengthening of cooperation between the two regimes against American unipolarism.

The US designates both countries as state sponsors of terrorism, and they respond to America with common hostility. N. Korea and Iran are the remaining two members of the so-called George W. Bush’s “Axis of Evil” from 2002, by which Bush designated America’s enemy states. At the end of October 2023, the leader of the Republicans in the US Senate, Mitch McConnell included Iran, North Korea, China and Russia in the new Axis of Evil. In the last two years, Iran and N. Korea are the main supporters of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Iran exports drones and North Korea supplies artillery shells to the Russian military.

Differences

However, the attitude of the two states towards the revolutionary groups in the Middle East and Africa is different. In some cases, both sides support revolutionary groups, and in some cases the views differ. Iran and North Korea provide military aid to Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in the Holy Land, Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war, and the Houthi movement in the Yemeni civil war.

On the other hand, North Korea and Iran had very different views on the Taliban in Afghanistan, Boko Haram in Nigeria and ISIL in Iraq. While North Korea has stressed that US efforts to crack down on these organizations amount to meddling in the internal affairs of Afghanistan, Nigeria and Iraq, Iran’s leaders, who see Sunni extremism as a direct threat to their own interests, have repeatedly accused America of not doing enough to defeat the groups. 

North Korean support for Hamas

Since Hamas carried out a terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, there have been accusations that North Korean weapons were used in the attack. On October 16, Israel’s ambassador to South Korea, Akiva Tor, expressed concern that Hamas had used North Korean weapons against Israel and vowed that the Israeli military would destroy North Korean weapons stockpiles in the Gaza Strip.

The next day, a senior official of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff claimed that he “believes that Hamas is directly or indirectly linked to the DPRK in various areas, such as arms trade, tactical leadership and training.” The North Koreans rejected the claims and the Americans did not confirm them, but there are a number of indicators that Pyongyang supports Hamas, not only rhetorically but also militarily. Israel captured a North Korean F-7 grenade from the Hamas arsenal. A South Korean official claims North Korean Bang-122 artillery shells were found on the Israel-Gaza border, and the Hamas-linked Palestinian militant group possesses North Korean-made 122mm multi-barrel rocket launchers.

Since the outbreak of the Gaza war, North Korean state media has criticized Israel and glorified Hamas. North Korea’s support for Hamas is consistent with its longstanding policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which parallels Iran’s. N. Korea does not have diplomatic relations with Israel, which it considers an “imperial satellite state,” and recognizes Palestinian sovereignty over the entire Holy Land. During the 2008-09 and 2014 Gaza conflicts, North Korean media described Israeli military actions as crimes against humanity. Since 2014, Hamas paid North Korea money to buy rockets and military communications equipment.A possible transit route for sending North Korean weapons to Hamas runs from Iran through Sudan to Egypt, where the weapons are sent through underground tunnels to the Gaza Strip.

North Korean support for Hezbollah and the Houthi movement

Although the military aid N. Korea’s pro-Iranian Shia Hezbollah coincides with its partnership with Iran, arms shipments were mostly motivated by the desire for profit of the North Korean elite. After 2000, North Korean instructors arrived in Lebanon and trained Hezbollah in building underground bunkers to store weapons, food and medical supplies. During his meeting with North Korean officials in 2004, Bashar al-Assad asked the North Koreans to help Hezbollah build underground military facilities.

With their assistance, Hezbollah has indeed built an extensive fortified network of tunnels from the area south of Lebanon’s Litani River to the Israeli-Lebanese border. These tunnels helped Hezbollah store rocket launchers underground and evade Israeli airstrikes. The North Koreans supplied Hezbollah with Soviet missiles and other equipment. Since Yemen’s civil war broke out in 2014, the pro-Iranian Shiite Houthi Movement has sought to acquire North Korean military technology.

In July 2015, South Korean intelligence officials revealed that the Houthis had fired 20 DPRK-made Scud missiles at Saudi Arabia. It is possible that these missiles were captured on the battlefield, since the Yemeni armed forces originally purchased them from N. Korea in 2002. Houthi leaders invited North Korean officials to a meeting in Damascus in July 2016 to discuss arms purchases. The UN found no evidence of North Korean arms purchases.

A wide spectrum of cooperation

In December 2022, Iran’s Deputy Minister of Science, Hashem Dadashpour, and North Korea’s Ambassador to Iran, Han Song, discussed educational cooperation. Discussions included the creation of a higher education program in Iran for North Korean students, short-term study exchanges, and the spread of the Persian language in N. Korea.

Through the exchange of information technology experts, Tehran could censor unfavorable international media coverage like Pyongyang. In the future, Iran and North Korea could cooperate on the reconstruction of Syria, which is their mutual partner.

Conclusion

The partnership between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Islamic Republic of Iran covers a wide range of cooperation, especially in the field of military technology, ballistic and nuclear technology. Despite occasional ambivalence in the relationship, as well as differences in support for certain revolutionary groups, both countries have an unquestionably strong relationship to deal with the threat posed by the United States. Pyongyang and Tehran have become key players in the international arena, often cooperating militarily, technologically and diplomatically. Their cooperation also extends to the field of education, and it is possible that in the future they will extend their partnership to the reconstruction of Syria.