North Korean leader invites Belarusian president to visit Pyongyang

ISTANBUL

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un invited Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko to visit Pyongyang during a conversation before the start of a military parade Wednesday in the Chinese capital Beijing, Belarusian state news agency Belta reported.

Kim invited Lukashenko to “visit his country at any convenient time,” it added, citing the Pul Pervogo Telegram channel.

The channel, known for widely covering Lukashenko’s activities, shared at least three photos of the two leaders, who are seen standing beside their interpreters.

In May this year, a delegation from the Belarusian government led by Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Shuleyko paid a three-day visit to Pyongyang for the third meeting of a joint committee on trade and economic cooperation.

In January, Lukashenko said that North Korea had invited Belarus to hold high-level meetings to discuss cooperation.

However, Kim Jong Un's powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, denied that Pyongyang had made any offer but said Belarus had been “hoping for a top-level contact with Pyongyang for the past two years.”

Kim and Lukashenko are in Beijing attending the military parade marking the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, the end of World War II and the 80th anniversary of the UN’s founding.

It marks the first time the third-generation North Korean leader has attended a multi-lateral diplomatic event since he assumed power in December 2011.