Minister of states for external affairs Gen. VK Singh is in Pyongyang on a two-day official trip. India is North Korea's second largest trading partner after China.
India has officially sent a government minister to North Korea for the first time in nearly two decades for talks on political and regional issues, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday.
India enlarged diplomatic relations with the North Korea some 45 years ago and has a small embassy there, but in recent years it halted trade and aid as the other countires stepped up global pressure to isolate Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile programs.
India’s diplomatic initiative comes just weeks after the two Koreas held their first summit in more than a decade and as the leaders of the United States and North Korea prepares for a first meeting next month.
Junior foreign minister V.K. Singh, who began the two-day visit to North Korea on Tuesday, reiterated New Delhi’s support for peace initiatives on the peninsula, the Indian foreign ministry said in a statement.
Singh met the vice-president of the presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, Kim Yong Dae, Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho and Culture Minister Pak Chun Nam, among others, it said.
Indian analysts said New Delhi could play a bit role in peacekeeping on the peninsula because it had kept its channels of communication open with the North.
“India is the only major country in the region that is not a party to the problem but which has good contacts with the North,” said Prashant Kumar Singh, a specialist on India’s ties with Pyongyang at the Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses.
The foreign ministry said the two sides had decided during Singh’s visit to explore cooperation in vocational education, agriculture, pharmaceuticals and promotion of yoga.
:source
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