HCMC – Vietnam’s Party General Secretary To Lam is scheduled to pay a state visit to North Korea this week at the invitation of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The October 9-11 visit coincides with the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, local news reports said, quoting Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that Kim Jong Un, General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea and President of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, had extended his invitivation to Party General Secretary To Lam.
Lam will also attend the celebration of the 80th founding anniversary of the Workers’ Party of Korea.
This will be his first visit to North Korea, taking place shortly after his state visit to South Korea in August this year.
In January this year, senior leaders of both countries exchanged congratulatory messages to mark this milestone. In their messages, Vietnamese leaders said that over the past 75 years since diplomatic relations were established, the traditional friendship between Vietnam and North Korea—founded by President Ho Chi Minh and President Kim Il Sung and nurtured by generations of leaders and people of both countries—has continued growing.
The Party, State, and people of Vietnam always attach great importance to and wish to further strengthen substantive and dynamic cooperation with North Korea across various fields, in line with the aspirations of the two peoples and the international commitments of each country, contributing to peace, stability, cooperation, and development in the region and the world.
At the ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Workers’ Party of Korea, held in Hanoi on October 2, North Korean Ambassador to Vietnam Ri Sung Guk highlighted the achievements of the Korean people over the past eight decades under the leadership of the Workers’ Party of Korea, headed by successive leaders—President Kim Il Sung, General Secretary Kim Jong Il, and now General Secretary and President of the State Affairs Commission Kim Jong Un.
In 2007, then-General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nong Duc Manh paid an official friendly visit to North Korea from October 16 to 18.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited Hanoi for the U.S.–North Korea summit and paid an official friendly visit to Vietnam from February 26 to March 2, 2019.
