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A welcoming the North Korean delegation is put up in front of the Vietnam-Korea Friendship Kindergarten in Vietnam’s Bac Giang Province on Feb. 27. (Yonhap News)
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Vietnamese government says Kim will be provided state guest treatment
On Feb. 27, North Korea’s state-run newspaper the Rodong Sinmun reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un would be paying an “official friendly visit” to Vietnam on Mar. 1-2, starting the day after his two-day summit with US President Donald Trump. This is the first time that North Korea’s supreme leader has visited Vietnam since Kim Il-sung’s official visit in 1958 and his unofficial visit in 1964. The Vietnamese government has said it will provide Kim Jong-un with the treatment usually reserved for a state visit. Kim’s official friendly visit to Vietnam is likely to begin with a visit to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, in downtown Hanoi. On visits to Vietnam, it’s conventional for the leaders of foreign countries to make their first stop at the mausoleum to lay a floral wreath. The mausoleum was also the first stop on South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s state visit to Vietnam in Mar. 2018. The mausoleum is located in the middle of Ba Dinh Square, where Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam’s independence in September 1945, and it’s also close to the Melia Hanoi hotel, where Kim is staying. Given the unusually close relationship that former North Korean leader Kim Il-sung had with Ho Chi Minh, Kim Jong-un, as Kim Il-sung’s grandson, might also visit Ho’s former home. This building – where Ho resided until his death in 1969 – displays the wooden desk, bed, books and clock that Ho once used. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Ho’s death. Retracing the steps of Kim Il-sung When discussing where Kim Jong-un might visit while he’s in Vietnam, one needs to retrace his grandfather’s trip to that country. When Kim Il-sung paid an official visit to Vietnam in 1958, he reportedly visited a textile factory in Nam Dinh Province, a farming cooperative and a military academy. The textile factory was the largest in Southeast Asia at the time. When Kim returned to Vietnam in 1964, he visited the popular tourist site of Ha Long Bay. In effect, Kim visited both sites of economic development and sites that symbolized the friendly ties between the two countries. One of the main sites of economic development that Kim Jong-un might visit is the Haiphong industrial park in Bac Ninh Province. This would also correspond to Kim’s adoption of a party line focusing on economic development and on the adoption of cutting-edge technology. LG Electronics has operations at Haiphong, which also hosts the production plant of VinFast, Vietnam’s first automaker. Ha Long Bay, which isn’t far away, is also expected to be on Kim’s itinerary, given North Korea’s focus on developing its Wonsan-Kalma Coastal Tourist Area. North Korean economic officials who accompanied Kim to Vietnam made a stop at the VinFast factory and at Ha Long Bay on the morning of Feb. 27. It’s unclear whether those tours by North Korean economic officials were a prelude to a visit by Kim. Rather than these sites, some say Kim is more likely to visit the Yen Phong Industrial Park in Bac Ninh Province. Yen Phong is the site of a smart phone factory operated by Samsung Electronics. Considering that Kim emphasized inter-Korean economic cooperation, including reopening the Kaesong Industrial Complex, in his New Year’s address, an actual visit to this site would be quite significant. Potential model offered by Vietnam’s agricultural development into global rice exporter Along with reporting the schedule of Kim’s official friendly visit to Vietnam on Feb. 27, the Rodong Sinmun also ran an article about Vietnam’s agricultural development. “By systematically increasing state investment in its agricultural development,” the paper said, “Vietnam has increased grain cultivation, making it not only self-sufficient in food production but also a world-class rice exporter.” In addition to Vietnam’s industrial parks, therefore, Kim might also visit sites of agricultural development. Sites that symbolize friendly relations between North Korea and Vietnam include Hanoi’s Vietnam-Korea Friendship Kindergarten and a cemetery for North Korean soldiers in Bac Giang Province. The kindergarten, which was built with North Korean assistance in 1978, includes a class named after Kim Jong-un. The cemetery is the site of a memorial built in honor of 14 North Korean soldiers who were killed during the Vietnam War. But some have pointed out that this latter site would also evoke North Korea’s hostile relationship with the US. By Yoo Kang-moon, senior staff writer Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
