Venezuela announces agreements with North Korean regime

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has announced that a delegation led by his right-hand man reached important agreements with North Korea and Vietnam after the team's trip to the two socialist republics last week.

Maduro made the announcement via a live phone call on a television programme hosted by the Vice President of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela, Diosdado Cabello, who spearheaded the South American country's delegation visit to both Asian nations between, Efe news reported.

In the call, Maduro told his second-in-command that he had reached "great agreements on agricultural production, political education and industrial production" when meeting "our brothers" from North Korea and Vietnam.

Cabello visited the two countries last week along with Venezuela's Minister of Women and Gender Equality, Blanca Eekhout, as well as other top government officials.

The second-most powerful man in Venezuela said during his programme that North Korea had invited Maduro to visit.

Maduro replied that he would soon visit the Asian country and proposed setting up a high-level economic committee to assess various forms of bilateral exchange, according to the report.

Although Venezuela and North Korea established diplomatic relations as early as 1965, diplomatic and trade ties between the two countries were strengthened after late President Hugo Chavez was elected as Venezuela's Commander-in-Chief in 1999. The ties have become closer than ever during Maduro's tenure.

In November 2018, the head of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly (North Korea's Parliament), Kim Yong-nam, visited Venezuela.

A little over a month ago, Venezuela announced the opening of its Embassy in North Korea, saying that it sought to expand ties and cooperation between Pyongyang and Caracas.