Japanese press hails DPRK leader’s official visit to Vietnam

The official website of NHK, Japan’s largest broadcasting corporation, ran an article entitled “Chairman Kim Jong-un: First official visit after the DPRK-USA summit in Vietnam”, reporting on the Vietnam visit by the DPRK leader with an official welcome ceremony taking place at the Presidential Palace in downtown Hanoi.

According to NHK, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee and President Nguyen Phu Trong said the visit is of great historical significance while the DPRK leader expressed his thanks for Vietnam’s wholehearted support for the DPRK during the summit.

An article by Nikkei Asia Review analysed the Vietnam-DPRK relations after the Hanoi summit. It wrote that Kim turns to the friendship with Vietnam and thanked the Vietnamese government for hosting the second summit between the US and the DPRK.

Kim is the first DPRK leader to visit Vietnam since his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, in 1964. The two countries' ties run deep, with Pyongyang having provided support for Vietnam during war by sending fighter pilots to North Vietnam, according to the article.-