General Secretary of the Communist Party of Việt Nam Central Committee Tô Lâm. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — General Secretary of the Communist Party of Việt Nam (CPV) Central Committee Tô Lâm will pay a state visit to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) from October 9 to 11 at the invitation of Kim Jong Un, General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) and President of the State Affairs of the DPRK, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced.

During the visit, General Secretary Tô Lâm is also expected to attend celebrations marking the 80th founding anniversary of the Workers’ Party of Korea.

This is the first visit by a Vietnamese leader to North Korea in nearly 20 years, following Party chief Nông Đức Mạnh’s trip to the East Asian country in 2007. 

North Korean top leader Kim Jong Un’s most recent visit to Việt Nam was in 2019, when he attended the North Korea–US Summit in Hà Nội.

This will be Lâm’s first visit to North Korea as General Secretary, just two months after his state visit to the Republic of Korea in August this year.

The visit takes place as Việt Nam and the DPRK mark the 75th anniversary of their diplomatic relations (January 31, 1950–2025). Earlier this year, senior leaders of both countries exchanged congratulatory messages to celebrate this milestone.

Việt Nam and North Korea officially established diplomatic relations in January 1950. North Korea was the third country, after China and the Soviet Union, to do so with Việt Nam after it declared independence in 1945.

Over the past 75 years, the traditional friendship and cooperation between Việt Nam and North Korea have been consistently valued and nurtured by the Parties, States and peoples of both nations, contributing to peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the wider world. — VNA/VNS