DPRK’s top legislator to visit Vietnam to promote ties

IIndonesia's Chairman of People's Consultative Assembly, Taufiq Kiemas(R) shakes hands with Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of North Korea, before their meeting at the Parliament in Jakarta, Indonesia, Tuesday, May 15, 2012. <File photo>

HANOI, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) — President of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Yong Nam will pay an official visit to Vietnam from August 5-7, at the invitation of Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang, Vietnam News Agency reported on Friday.

The visit, the second made by Kim Yong Nam following his first official visit to Vietnam in July 2001, aims to promote traditional friendship and multi-faceted cooperation between Vietnam and the DPRK, said the report.

Vietnam and DPRK established diplomatic ties in 1950, and over the years the two countries have maintained good relations through friendly visits by the two countries’ Party and State leaders.

Bilateral economic cooperation remains modest with Vietnam’s export revenues to the DPRK increasing from 16.5 million U.S dollars in 2009 to 18 million U.S. dollars in 2011.

Vietnam exports are mainly consumer goods to the DPRK. In 2008, the two countries signed five memorandums of understanding (MOU) on mining cooperation and technical exchange. The Vietnam-DPRK Inter-Governmental Committee for Economic, Scientific and Technological Cooperation also maintains regular activities with the eighth session scheduled to be held in Pyongyang in late August, 2012.

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