PRESIDENT MEETS CHAIRMAN OF DPRK'S SUPREME ASSEMBLY

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia /MONTSAME/ The President Ts.Elbegdorj has said he was satisfied with a sustainable development of the 60-year traditional and friendly relations between Mongolia and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) based on interests of the countries' people and common principles of international relations. The State Head said it on Monday with Mr Choi Tae-Bok, a chairman of the Supreme Assembly of the DPRK paying an official visit to Mongolia at an invitation of the Parliament Speaker of Mongolia. Ts.Elbegdorj highlighted an importance of this visit for activating the not only the cooperation between the legislative bodies, but also the bilateral relations. Mongolia has a willingness to cooperate with new authorities of the DPRK, he went on. Conveying a greeting of the Supreme Leader of his country, Mr Choi noted that the Eternal President Kim Il-sung has established basis of the long-year bilateral ties by visiting Mongolia twice, and then underlined that the current Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un is focusing attention to the bilateral friendly relations. Mentioning that the bilateral friendly relations has been developing in many spheres, Mr Choi considered that the ties meet interests of the countries' people and will absolutely contribute to the peace and security in Northeast Asia. “I have discussed with the Mongolia's Speaker issues about exchanging delegates and ensuring a condition of developing the bilateral economic relations,” Mr Choi said, hoping that the President will support a development of the Mongolia-N.Korea cooperation. “We are really appreciating great attention of the Mongolian government to developing its economy based on natural resources and exploiting it to improve livelihood of people. We also back the independent and multilateral foreign policy of Mongolia,” Mr Choi stressed. Mr Choi also said his country's Supreme Leader is working with two big purposes that are to establish a powerful state and to improve livelihood of people. Then he gave to the State Head a report about the North Korea's present relations and traditional history and culture. Expressing thanks for talking about the bilateral relations and for giving specific reports, the President Elbegdorj considered as necessity to focus attention to some issues in order to activate the bilateral relations. Firstly, the President underlined an importance of high-level visits, and said Mongolia has a willingness to accept a visit of the DPRK Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un. Secondly, he proposed the N.Korean side to activate the economic ties, to co-exploit natural resources, to establish infrastructure for exploitation of mineral resources and to produce final products with raw materials from the both countries. In addition, he said the countries are possible to augment the bilateral trade, to exchange labour force, to actively participate in marine transport and to develop the collaboration in the fields of tourism, science and technology. The President stressed that Mongolia will pay great attention to proposals of the DPRK, and added he discussed this matter with Kim Yong-nam, the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly during a high-level meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement held August of 2012 in Tehran, Iran. “During this meeting, I raised an issue on food assistance for the North Korea. Our government is considering this matter,” he said. Lastly, the President emphasized that the Korean Peninsula issue must be tackled in a peaceful way. “This is a traditional position of Mongolia,” he underlined. “Mongolia is ready to host a meeting for specific sides of the Six-Party Talks on Korean Peninsula. Recently, Mongolia has organized a meeting of representatives of DPRK and Japan at an initiative of Mongolia,” the President said, expressing a satisfaction with it. At the end of the meeting, the State Head conveyed his greeting of the Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un. B.Khuder