North Korea said on Wednesday it supports the Iranian people's choice of Mojtaba Khamenei as its new Supreme Leader, state media said.
Mojtaba Khamenei was named earlier this week as the successor to his father, who was eliminated in joint US-Israeli strikes in Iran last Saturday.
According to North Korea’s official news agency KCNA, the country’s foreign ministry also said it strongly denounces what it described as the US and Israel’s "illegal" attacks against Iran, saying they destroy peace and escalate instability worldwide.
Iran and North Korea are known to have cooperated in the past on their respective ballistic missile programs.
In 2013, it was revealed that the two countries had promised one another to continue cooperating on nuclear missile development.
In 2021, a UN expert panel reported that the two countries resumed cooperation on long-range missile projects the previous year, including transfers of critical components.