By IANS,
Pyongyang : Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki Wednesday arrived in the North Korean capital at the head of a large delegation, official Irna news agency reported.
Mottaki’s North Korean visit, following his Malaysian tour, is in the second leg of his four nation diplomatic mission to south Asia that will take him to South Korea and Myanmar as part of Tehran’s ‘Look East’ (negahe be shargh) policy.
During his one-day stay in the communist country, Mottaki is to hold talks with Chairman of the North Korean parliament Choe Thae Bok, president of the Presidium Kim Yong Nam, the second in the North Korean hierarchy after the country’s leader Kim Jong Il, and foreign minister Pak Ui Chun.
The talks will focus on enhancing Tehran-Pyongyang ties and the latest international and regional developments.
Iran’s “Look East” strategy, which started with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Sri Lanka-Pakistan-India visit early this year seeks to build bilateral and multilateral relations and cooperation in economic, political and cultural spheres with the non-Western world.
The new diplomatic offensive is part of Tehran’s global diplomacy that seeks to establish ties with countries in Asia, Africa, Central and Latin America that are visibly anti-America, such as Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.