Top North Korean Diplomat Visits Tehran Hours After U.S. Sanctions Take Effect

In what is being construed as a show of defiance, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani welcomed North Korea’s top diplomat to Tehran just hours after the first tranche of U.S. sanctions were re-imposed on the Islamic Republic. “The U.S. administration’s performance in these years has led the country to be considered untrustworthy and unreliable around the world,” Rouhani was quoted as telling Ri Yong Ho, who is Pyongyang’s lead negotiator in ongoing talks with Washington geared towards denuclearizing the hermit nation. Rouhani added that Iran and North Korea have “always had close views,” a possible allusion to the nations’ alleged cooperation on atomic and ballistic missile development. Ri traveled to Tehran after attending a security forum in Singapore, where he reportedly sparred with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over an agreement made at June’s landmark summit between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un. For his part, Ri told Rouhani that Washington’s withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear agreement was an “action against international rules and regulations,” and stressed that “North Korea’s strategic policy is to deepen relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran and confront unilateralism.”