According to a Norwegian media outlet, it is likely that Iran sent two-and-a-half million U.S. dollars to North Korea via the Seoul branch of Iran's Bank Mellat for arms that it imported from the North.

WikiLeaks disclosed U.S. diplomatic cables that suggest Washington had asked Seoul to investigate and take sanctions on the bank. The documents show that Washington was under the judgment that the Seoul branch was the key in financial transactions related to Iran's projects to develop nuclear weapons and missiles and that the North used the bank for remittance.

Norway's Aftenposten newspaper said that cables of the U.S. State Department in March 2008 show that Hong Kong Electronics, a company in Iran, remitted two-and-a-half million U.S. dollars over three times to the Seoul branch of Bank Mellat in November 2007.

The Seoul government reportedly presented to Washington its probe results on Mellat and other Iranian banks, but found no evidence of transactions related to missile and nuclear weapons.