Will Mr. Assad be the first head of state to visit Mr. Kim in Pyongyang?
Days before North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met US President Donald Trump in Singapore, he revealed plans to meet Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
North Korea's KCNA news agency said Mr. Assad would visit Mr. Kim in Pyongyang. The KCNA report did not give details and Syrian media have not reported on the event.
|
| Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and North Korean President Kim Jong Un. |
If the meeting takes place in Pyongyang, it will be the first time a country's leader has visited Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang.
The new information comes amid a flurry of international diplomatic activity involving the North Korean leader. Kim recently met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the demilitarized zone on the border between the two countries. He also traveled to China to meet with President Xi Jinping, and most recently hosted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Pyongyang.
Last week, North Korea's former intelligence chief became the highest-ranking official from the country to visit the United States in 18 years.
According to KCNA, the Syrian president received a letter of credence from Kim Jong-un from the North Korean ambassador. The news agency added that Assad declared that Syria would "fully support all policies and measures" of the North Korean leadership.
Relations between Syria and North Korea have been friendly for decades. In the 1970s, Mr. Assad’s father, the late President Hafez, met with North Korea’s founder, Kim Il Sung. In 2015, the Syrian government even named a park in Damascus after Kim Il Sung.
