Vietnam's top leader to pay rare visit to North Korea in October

Vietnam's Communist Party chief To Lam is expected to visit North Korea next month, two Vietnamese officials said, marking the first visit in nearly 20 years for a Vietnamese leader to the largely isolated nation.

The two Communist countries maintain close diplomatic ties but have currently no trade relations, according to the Vietnamese embassy in Pyongyang.

The possible visit, with preparations still underway, has not been officially announced by either side. Vietnam's ministry of foreign affairs and North Korea's embassy in Hanoi did not respond to requests for comment.

The two officials declined to indicate a precise time frame for the visit and the issues that may be discussed, but one official said Lam would meet North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un.

The last time a Vietnamese leader visited North Korea was in 2007 when the head of the ruling Communist Party Nong Duc Manh embarked on a three-day trip to the country, marking the first visit by a Vietnamese party chief since the late President Ho Chi Minh in 1957.

In a rare foreign trip, Kim visited Hanoi in 2019 as part of a visit whose highlight was a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, then serving his first term at the White House.

Multiple lower-ranking officials have met in either Hanoi or Pyongyang in recent years, according to a list of meetings on the website of the Vietnamese embassy in North Korea, which shows meetings resumed last year after a five-year pause.

This year the two countries celebrate 75 years of diplomatic relations.

Lam visited South Korea in August 

The visit would follow Lam's trip in August to South Korea, a country with which Pyongyang has tense relations. Lam was the first foreign leader hosted by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung since he took office in June.

Hanoi is highly reliant on investments from Seoul. Samsung Electronics 005930.KS and other large Korean multinationals are leading contributors to Vietnam's economy, with existing investments exceeding $90 billion, largely in factories.

The latest year for which data on trade with North Korea is available is 2016, when Vietnam exported to Pyongyang goods worth nearly $3 million, according to the Vietnamese embassy.

North Korea has for decades faced international sanctions largely linked to its nuclear weapons programme.

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