Hanoi - North Korea's premier Kim Yong Il is to arrive in
Vietnam later this week for a five-day 'friendly visit,' state media
reported Tuesday.
The visit by Kim Yong Il - who is not related to North Korean
leader Kim Jong Il - is part of a South-East Asian tour by the
premier of the isolated communist state.
Kim Yong Il's trip starts on Friday and is expected to pave the
way for a later visit by Kim Jong Il to Hanoi, which has been
announced but no date has been given.
No agenda was immediately available for the premier's week-long
visit, according to Quan Doi Nhan Dan, the official army newspaper.
The two communist countries are widely expected to express
ideological solidarity, even though Vietnam has been administering
free-market reforms for the past 20 years while North Korea's command
economy keeps the country in desperate poverty.
It was unclear whether the subject of North Korea's nuclear
programme would be discussed during the visit.
Kim's visit follows last week's trip by Vietnam's Communist Party
leader Nong Duc Manh to Pyongyang where he met with Kim Jong Il and
extended an invitation for the supreme leader to visit Vietnam later
this year.
Hanoi keeps diplomatic relations with both North and South
Korea.
North Korea and Vietnam have not engaged in any significant
level of trade with each other in the past decade, while South Korea
is one of the largest foreign investors in Vietnam.
Kim, who travels on to Cambodia after Vietnam, may be seeking
new trade ties and diplomatic support among countries that have
previously been isolated.
Vietnam was subject to a US trade embargo that was only lifted in
1994. Hanoi and Washington later established full diplomatic ties.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
USA
Your Talkback on this Story