North Korea respects Iran’s choice of a new supreme leader, state media said on Wednesday (March 11, 2026), accusing the U.S. and Israel of undermining regional peace.

Pyongyang, a longstanding U.S. adversary, has previously condemned the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran as an “illegal act of aggression”.

Defying U.S. President Donald Trump’s desire to have a say in who runs Iran, the Islamic republic on Sunday (March 8, 2026) named Mojtaba Khamenei to replace his father, longtime ruler Ali Khamenei, who died in an Israeli airstrike on February 28, 2026.

“We respect the rights and choice of the Iranian people to elect their supreme leader,” Pyongyang’s unnamed Foreign Ministry spokesperson was quoted as saying by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The official said the United States and Israel are “destroying the regional peace and security foundations and escalating instability worldwide”.

The spokesperson accused Washington and Israel of violating Iran’s “political system and territorial integrity”, and attempting to “overthrow its social system”. Such actions “deserve worldwide criticism and rejection as they can never be tolerated,” the official added.

The United States has for decades led efforts to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear programme, but summits, sanctions and diplomatic pressure have had little impact.

In recent months, the Trump administration has mounted a push to revive high-level talks with Pyongyang, eyeing a potential summit between the U.S. President and the North’s Kim Jong Un this year.

Mr. Trump said during his Asia trip in October that he was “100%” open to meeting with Mr. Kim, a remark that went unanswered by the North.

After largely ignoring those overtures for months, Mr. Kim recently said that the two nations could “get along” if Washington accepted Pyongyang’s nuclear status.

“Terrible consequences”

Pyongyang’s state media also said on Wednesday (March 11, 2025) that North Korea’s leader oversaw another test-firing of strategic cruise missiles from the naval Choe Hyon destroyer.

North Korea carried out a similar missile test from the vessel last week, claiming the country was in the process of “arming the Navy with nuclear weapons”. During the occasion, Kim stressed the importance of expanding a “powerful and reliable nuclear war deterrent,” KCNA said.

Images released by state media showed Mr. Kim overseeing the launch remotely via video footage with his teenage daughter, Ju Ae, who is now widely regarded as his heir apparent.

There, Mr. Kim said “important successes” have been made in the practical deployment of “strategic and tactical strike means”.

South Korea’s spy agency has said Pyongyang appears to have begun the process of designating Ju Ae as leader Kim’s successor, with the North frequently releasing photographs of the young daughter accompanying her father on official duties.

The test came as Washington and Seoul kicked off their springtime military drills “Freedom Shield” on Monday, to which Pyongyang responded by warning of “unimaginably terrible consequences”.

The Choe Hyon is one of two 5,000-tonne destroyers in the North’s arsenal, both launched last year as Kim seeks to ramp up the navy with short-range tactical missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

North Korea appears to be “securing the legitimacy and justification for bolstering war deterrence,” Yang Moo-jin, former president of the University of North Korean Studies, told AFP.

With the war in Iran, the joint U.S.-South Korea drills are being highlighted by the North “as not merely defensive and routine, but ultimately attempts at a preemptive war”.

Iran’s ‌Assembly of Experts has named ​Mojtaba Khamenei ⁠to replace his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ‌as the country’s new supreme ‌leader, state ‌media reported ⁠on Sunday (March 8, 2026).

Mr. Mojtaba, a ⁠mid-ranking cleric with close ties to the powerful ​Revolutionary ‌Guards, had long been viewed by elements of Iran’s ruling ‌establishment as a ​potential successor to his father, who ⁠was killed after the United ‌States and Israel launched strikes on Iran.

His wife, Zahra Haddad-Adel, daughter of a former speaker of parliament, also died in the U.S.-Israeli strikes according to Iranian authorities.

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Although Iran’s ruling ideology frowns on the principle ‌of hereditary succession, he ​has a powerful following within ⁠the Guards and his dead ⁠father’s still-influential office. 

Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, “is appointed and introduced as the third leader of the sacred system of the Islamic Republic of Iran, based on the decisive vote of the respected representatives of the Assembly of Experts”, the clerical body said in a statement.

It said that the body “did not hesitate for a minute” in choosing a new leader, despite “the brutal aggression of the criminal America and the evil Zionist regime”.

U.S. President Donald Trump has previously dismissed the younger Khamenei as a “lightweight”, and insisted again on Sunday (March 8, 2026) that he should have a say in the new leader’s appointment.

“If he doesn’t get approval from us he’s not going to last long,” he told ABC News before the announcement was made.

But Tehran’s top diplomat said that the decision was Iran’s alone, adding it would “allow nobody to interfere in our domestic affairs”.

Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press”, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi went on to demand Mr. Trump “apologise to people of the region” for starting the war.

Israel’s military had previously warned any successor that “we will not hesitate to target you”.

Iran Guards say ‘ready for complete obedience’ to Mojtaba Khamenei

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards pledged allegiance on Sunday (March 8, 2026) to the country’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, after he was appointed his father’s successor by the Assembly of Experts.

“The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps… is ready for complete obedience and self-sacrifice in carrying out the divine commands of the Guardian Jurist of the time, His Eminence Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei”, the Guards said in a statement.

Inputs from Reuters, AFP

An Indian national is among two killed after a projectile fell on a residential location in Saudi Arabia on Sunday (March 8, 2026), officials said.

The military projectile fell in a residential area in Saudi Arabia’s al-Kharj Governorate on Sunday (March 2, 2026), killing two people and injuring 12 others, the Saudi Civil Defence said.

Israel-Iran war March 8 updates

A Civil Defence spokesman said the projectile struck a residential compound belonging to a maintenance and cleaning company in Al-Kharj.

The incident killed one Indian national and one Bangladeshi national, while 12 Bangladeshi residents were injured, Al-Arabiya news reported.

However, the authorities have not yet released the identity of the victims.

The strike also caused material damage, the spokesman said.

“The official spokesman for the Civil Defense stated that on Sunday, Civil Defence dealt with a military projectile falling on a residential site belonging to a maintenance and cleaning company in Al-Kharj Governorate, which resulted in two deaths of Indian and Bangladeshi nationalities and injury to (12) residents of Bangladeshi nationality, as well as material damage, the Saudi Civil Defence said in a post on X.

The post further said that “attempts to target civilian objects are a blatant violation of international humanitarian law…” Starting February 28, the U.S. and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran, which came after days of build-up with U.S. President Donald Trump ramping up the pressure on Tehran to agree to a new deal on its nuclear programme. Iran’s retaliation escalated the war to the entire Gulf region.