North Korea respects Iran’s alternative of a brand new supreme chief, state media stated on Wednesday (March 11, 2026), accusing the U.S. and Israel of undermining regional peace.
Pyongyang, a longstanding U.S. adversary, has beforehand condemned the U.S.-Israeli assault on Iran as an “unlawful act of aggression”.
Defying U.S. President Donald Trump’s need to have a say in who runs Iran, the Islamic republic on Sunday (March 8, 2026) named Mojtaba Khamenei to exchange his father, longtime ruler Ali Khamenei, who died in an Israeli airstrike on February 28, 2026.
“We respect the rights and selection of the Iranian folks to elect their supreme chief,” Pyongyang’s unnamed International Ministry spokesperson was quoted as saying by the official Korean Central Information Company (KCNA).
The official stated the US and Israel are “destroying the regional peace and safety foundations and escalating instability worldwide”.
The spokesperson accused Washington and Israel of violating Iran’s “political system and territorial integrity”, and trying to “overthrow its social system”. Such actions “deserve worldwide criticism and rejection as they will by no means be tolerated,” the official added.
America has for many years led efforts to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear programme, however summits, sanctions and diplomatic stress have had little influence.
In current months, the Trump administration has mounted a push to revive high-level talks with Pyongyang, eyeing a possible summit between the U.S. President and the North’s Kim Jong Un this yr.
Mr. Trump stated throughout his Asia journey in October that he was “100%” open to assembly with Mr. Kim, a comment that went unanswered by the North.
After largely ignoring these overtures for months, Mr. Kim just lately stated that the 2 nations might “get alongside” if Washington accepted Pyongyang’s nuclear standing.
“Horrible penalties”
Pyongyang’s state media additionally stated on Wednesday (March 11, 2025) that North Korea’s chief oversaw one other test-firing of strategic cruise missiles from the naval Choe Hyon destroyer.
North Korea carried out the same missile take a look at from the vessel final week, claiming the nation was within the technique of “arming the Navy with nuclear weapons”. Throughout the event, Kim harassed the significance of increasing a “highly effective and dependable nuclear conflict deterrent,” KCNA stated.
Pictures launched by state media confirmed Mr. Kim overseeing the launch remotely by way of video footage together with his teenage daughter, Ju Ae, who’s now broadly thought to be his inheritor obvious.
There, Mr. Kim stated “essential successes” have been made within the sensible deployment of “strategic and tactical strike means”.
South Korea’s spy company has stated Pyongyang seems to have begun the method of designating Ju Ae as chief Kim’s successor, with the North incessantly releasing images of the younger daughter accompanying her father on official duties.
The take a look at got here as Washington and Seoul kicked off their springtime army drills “Freedom Defend” on Monday, to which Pyongyang responded by warning of “unimaginably horrible penalties”.
The Choe Hyon is considered one of two 5,000-tonne destroyers within the North’s arsenal, each launched final yr as Kim seeks to ramp up the navy with short-range tactical missiles able to carrying nuclear warheads.
North Korea seems to be “securing the legitimacy and justification for bolstering conflict deterrence,” Yang Moo-jin, former president of the College of North Korean Research, instructed AFP.
With the conflict in Iran, the joint U.S.-South Korea drills are being highlighted by the North “as not merely defensive and routine, however finally makes an attempt at a preemptive conflict”.
Printed – March 11, 2026 12:21 pm IST