On February 28, Israel and the United States launched a sudden strike, killing Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a number of other senior figures. When three reporting partners living in northern North Korea were informed of this in early March, all were deeply shocked and could not hide their disbelief. Below, we report on reactions inside North Korea to the attack on Iran. (ISHIMARU Jiro / KANG Ji-won)
◆ "I can't believe it!" — Responding with a Barrage of Questions
The assassination of a supreme leader sent shockwaves around the world. On March 1, the North Korean government issued a statement from a Foreign Ministry spokesperson through state media condemning the United States and Israel, but made no mention of the deaths of Khamenei and other leaders.
ASIAPRESS informed three reporting partners living in northern North Korea that a large number of Iranian leaders had been killed in the first day of strikes by the United States and Israel. Their responses through March 8 were as follows.
Reporting Partner A
"Is that really true? Did Trump start the war first? How could leaders be killed in just one day? Were their families killed too? Iran won't just stand by after its president — its leader — was killed, will it? Doesn't Iran have nuclear weapons?"
※ At this point, the circumstances of the Israeli and U.S. strikes were explained, along with the fact that Iran is not a nuclear-armed state.
"Ah, so that's why here [in North Korea] they keep insisting on maintaining nuclear arms. I understand now what the government keeps saying, “without nuclear weapons, you're no better than a slave.' But here, they will absolutely never tell us that a president has been killed."
