Tehran and Pyongyang plan US ban talks

Iran’s foreign minister says he will visit North Korea as both countries struggle under US sanctions.

Iran’s official Irna news agency yesterday reported Mohammad Javad Zarif saying the visit was being planned and that a date would be announced soon.

The US has increased sanctions on Iran since President Donald Trump withdrew from its 2015 nuclear accord with world powers last year. America has tightened sanctions on North Korea to try to persuade it to give up its nuclear weapons.

An Iranian parliamentary delegation visited North Korea in December, and North Korean diplomat Ri Yong-ho visited Iran in August. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has held two summits with Mr Trump. But relations have improved little in that time.

After meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin last week, Mr Kim indicated that he had cooled on the muchtouted attempt by Mr Trump to woo his country into a nonnuclear future.

The official Korean Central News Agency reported that Mr Kim had told Mr Putin the US had adopted a “unilateral attitude in bad faith” at the Hanoi summit.

“Peace and security on the Korean Peninsula will entirely depend on the US future attitude, and the DPRK will gird itself for every possible situation,” Mr Kim said.

Mr Putin backed the North’s demand for “security guarantees” in its stand-off with the US over its nuclear capability, which Washington wants to be scrapped but Pyongyang fears would leave the country vulnerable.

Mr Trump has said that he and Mr Kim share a special friendship. But their second summit, held in Hanoi, broke down in late February without a deal after cash-strapped Pyongyang demanded immediate relief from sanctions.

Russia has also called for the sanctions to be eased, while the US has accused Moscow of trying to help Pyongyang evade some of the measures.

In another setback only one week ago, Pyongyang demanded the removal of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from the stalled nuclear talks.