SEOUL – North Korea’s No. 2 leader met with a Syrian delegation in Pyongyang yesterday, the North’s media reported, amid suspicions of a secret nuclear connection between the two countries.

Kim Yong Nam, head of the North’s rubber-stamp legislature and titular head of state, had “a friendly talk” with the Syrian delegation, led by Saaeed Eleia Dawood, director of the organizational department of Syria’s Baath Arab Socialist Party, the North’s Korean Central News Agency reported.

The Syrian official expressed satisfaction that the “friendly and cooperative ties” between the two countries “are growing stronger under the deep care” of Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, KCNA said.

On Friday, the Syrian official held talks with Choe Tae Bok, a senior official of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party.

The delegation’s trip to Pyongyang came amid suspicions that the North may be providing nuclear assistance to Syria.

Both countries deny the charge.

The American deputy assistant secretary of state for nuclear nonproliferation policy, Andrew Semmel, said last week that North Koreans were in Syria, and that Syria may have had contacts with “secret suppliers” to obtain nuclear equipment.

Mr. Semmel did not identify the suppliers. However, he said that he could not exclude the possibility that the nuclear black-market network run by the disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan may have been involved.

Mr. Semmel’s comments raised speculation that an Israeli incursion into Syrian airspace on Sept. 6 was a strike targeting a nuclear installation. American officials have said Israeli warplanes struck a target. One American military officer said the strike was aimed at weapons being shipped to Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.