North Korean deputy foreign minister departs Myanmar "satisfied"

Apr 28, 2007, 4:55 GMT

Yangon - North Korean Deputy Foreign Minster Kim Yong Il departed Myanmar Saturday after re-establishing diplomatic relations between the two secretive states.

'We had a wonderful visit, (we're) satisfied,' Kim told reporters as he departed the Nikko Hotel in Yangon, the former capital of Myanmar, for the airport. ' I wish the prosperity, happiness and success for the people of Myanmar.'

The deputy foreign minister did not visit Myanmar's new capital of Naypyitaw, 350 kilometres north of Yangon, during his four-day visit, the highlight of which was the signing of an agreement Thursday re- establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries, which had been severed in 1983.

Kim was seen off from Yangon International Airport by low-ranking Myanmar foreign ministry officials, eyewitnesses said.

Kim and his delegation arrived in Yangon Wednesday to finalize negotiations on normalizing diplomatic ties between the two Asian countries, deemed pariah states by many western democracies.

Myanmar severed its diplomatic ties with Pyongyang in 1983 after North Korean nationals set off bombs in Yangon's Martyrs' Mausoleum, killing 21 members of a visiting South Korean delegation. One of the three North Korean assassins who carried out the plot is still in a Myanmar jail.

In recent years Myanmar has made quiet efforts to normalize relations with North Korea, a diplomatic manoeuvre that many analysts see as a response to Western and US efforts to put political pressure on the two totalitarian states.

Myanmar, which has been denied foreign aid by most Western democracies and multilateral aid organizations like the World Bank since its brutal crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in 1988, has also made recent diplomatic overtures to Iran and Venezuela.