Iran and North Korea reacted very differently to U.S. offers to help battle coronavirus

Ali Khamenei.
(Image credit: ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images)

The United States has extended overtures toward two countries, Iran and North Korea, with whom tensions remain high, offering to cooperate in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic. Pyongyang and Tehran had very different responses.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday refused the United States' assistance to fight the novel coronavirus pandemic, which has been particularly harsh in Iran where tough economic sanctions preventing the sale of crude oil and access to international financial markets remain in place.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.