Iran has “no nuclear relations” with North Korea, and rumours that it does are false, the head of the country’s Atomic Energy Organization (AEO) insisted on Tuesday.

Speaking to Iranian Students’ News Agency at a burial ceremony for two “unknown martyrs” at AEO headquarters, Ali Akbar Salehi denied the claims and said: “I don’t know why and how such rumours are produced”.

His response comes after Tuesday’s news that an unnamed Western diplomat had told Kyodo News that Iranian and North Korean security officials made an agreement to cooperate further in the fields of nuclear and missile development in August.

The agreement, which was reached