VK Singh first Indian minister to visit N Korea in two decades

New Delhi, May 16

Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs Gen VK Singh is a on two-day unannounced visit to North Korea.  Singh, who travelled to Pyongyang from China on Tuesday, is the first Indian minister in two decades to pay an official visit to the hermit kingdom. 

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, as MoS (I&B), was the last Indian minister to visit Pyongyang in September 1998 to attend a film festival.

During the visit, Singh held discussions with Kim Yong Dae, Vice-President of Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly; Ri Yong Ho, Foreign Minister; Pak Chun Nam, Minister of Culture; and Choe Hui Chol, Vice Foreign Minister, on a range of political, regional, economic issues. 

Gen Singh encouraged the two Koreas “for efforts towards establishment of peace and prosperity” in the Peninsula. — TNS