Vietnam leadership to visit North Korea

Hanoi - One of Vietnam's highest ranking leaders will make an official visit to North Korea, a communist party official said Wednesday. Nong Duc Manh, the General Secretary of the Communist Party, accepted an invitation by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to visit Pyongyang. 'The visit is aimed at enhancing diplomatic relations between the two countries,' said Vu Tien Han, an official at the Communist Party's China-North East Asia department. No date was given, nor were any details announced. But an official in the Communist Party's external relations office said the visit would probably take place in mid-October. Vietnam announced last week that North Korea's leader planned to visit Hanoi. Despite being among the few remaining communist governments left in the world, North Korea and Vietnam are not considered close allies. While Vietnam embraced market capitalism 20 years ago, North Korea remains a centrally planned agrarian economy closed to much of the outside world. The two countries have not engaged in any significant level of trade with each other in the past decade. Vietnam maintains relations with both Pyongyang and Seoul. South Korea is one of the largest investors in Vietnam. © 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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