N.Korean No.2 woos Vietnam

N.Korean No.2 woos Vietnam

HANOI (AFP): North Korea's titular head of state, Kim Yong- Nam, arrived here on Wednesday on the first such visit in four decades aimed at wooing Vietnam's support ahead of a key regional forum here later this month.

Kim, the number two in the North Korean regime after supreme leader Kim Jong-Il, was due to hold talks with top Vietnamese leaders to consolidate a mounting rapprochement between the long estranged ideological soulmates.

Even though the two countries are among the world's last surviving communist regimes, it was the first visit here by a top North Korean leader in some 40 years.

Airport officials confirmed Kim's arrival but Vietnam's communist authorities threw up a protective cordon around their publicity-shy visitors, barring Vietnamese and foreign journalists from any contact with the North Korean delegation.