SEOUL/HANOI (Reuters) -Vietnam’s Communist Party chief To Lam will travel to North Korea this week, the Vietnamese government and North Korean state media said on Monday, marking the first visit of a Vietnamese leader to the largely isolated nation in nearly 20 years.
The visit, which Reuters first reported last month, would coincide with a military parade North Korea will hold on October 10 to celebrate 80 years since the founding of its ruling Workers’ Party.
Lam’s three-day visit will start on October 9, the government in Hanoi said. It followed an invitation by North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, Vietnam’s foreign ministry said, confirming a report on North Korea’s state media KCNA.
Vietnam’s defence minister Phan Van Giang is expected to join the delegation, one Vietnamese official said.
The two Communist countries maintain close ties and this year mark 75 years of diplomatic relations, although they currently have no trade relations, according to the Vietnamese embassy in Pyongyang.
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.
The visit follows 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.
Lee has pledged to reduce tensions with its neighbour.
South Korea is preparing to host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, whose 21 members include China and the U.S., in the city of Gyeongju from October 29.
U.S. President Donald Trump plans to visit South Korea around the summit and have a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
(Reporting by Heejin Kim in Seoul and Phuong Nguyen and Francesco Guarascio in Hanoi; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Kate Mayberry)
