Iran, North Korea eye energy cooperation

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran and North Korea yesterday agreed to step up cooperation in the energy sector as the reclusive Asian state's trade minister paid a visit to the fellow arch foe of the United States.

"Both nations can cooperate in the fields of exploration, production and other fields of the energy sector," Iranian Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh said after the meeting with North Korean Foreign Trade Minister Rim Kyong Man.

The oil ministry's Shana news agency said the North Korean minister said Pyongyang wanted an expansion of cooperation in energy and also to swap refined petrol with crude oil from OPEC's number two producer.

"Since both nations are in the front row of the fight against imperialism and now political relations are at the highest level, North Korea is to get oil from Iran and to provide Iran with a surplus of its own refined petrol," he said, according to Shana.

No further details were given but Iran is forced to import millions of litres of petrol daily to make up for shortfalls created by a lack of refineries at home.

Rim also added that North Korean engineers would visit Iran to gain technical knowledge about refineries.

Both Iran and North Korea were famously lumped by US President George W. Bush into an "Axis of Evil" although Pyongyang has sought to thaw relations with Washington by pledging to declare and disable all nuclear programmes.

North Korea has robust ties with Iran and its officials are occasional visitors to the Islamic republic. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei visited Pyongyang when he was president in May 1989.

Western experts say that Iran's longer range Shahab-3 missile is based on North Korean missile called the Nodong-1 but Tehran insists the technology is entirely homegrown.