CHOI TAE-BOK RECEIVES OUR MINISTERS

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia /MONTSAME/ Several high officials were received by Mr Choi Tae-Bok, the chairman of the Supreme Assembly of the DPRK on November 21, who is visiting Mongolia November 18-22 by invitation of the Mongolian Speaker Z.Enkhbold. He received the Foreign Minister L.Bold, the Roads and transportation Minister A.Gansukh and the Labour vice Minister J.Baykhuyag. “Our countries have historical relations, and authorities of the countries in all periods always make efforts to strengthen the relations,” Mr Choi said. Mentioned the negotiations with the Speaker Z.Enkhbold, he said he had asked parliament to assist the intergovernmental economic cooperation and to a good legal environment for it. Then he hoped that the Mongolian FM will also pay great attention to this matter. Mr Choi requested the Foreign Minister to organize the 9th meeting of the intergovernmental consultative commission of trade, economic and scientific cooperation this year, to start a construction of the N.Korea's Embassy in Ulaanbaatar, and to positively figure out a matter on exchanging labour force. In response, L.Bold thanked the chairman of the Supreme Assembly of the DPRK for backing Mongolia's multilateral foreign policy. He underlined that Mongolia intends to strengthen the ties with Northeast Asian countries, and promised to realize the N.Korea's requests. Mr Choi shared views with the Minister of Road and Transportation on bringing to a new level the cooperation in autoroads, railway and air transport sectors and on prolonging the renting of sea ports. Saying Mongolia plans to run 5,000 km autoroad and 1,800 km railway, A.Gansukh expressed a willingness to import skilled labour force from the N.Korea. It has been preliminarily calculated that 1,500 specialized workers are required for these works, he added. Moreover, the Minister said it is possible to create the direct flight. He said Mongolia wants to prolong a memorandum on exploitation of seaports of the DPRK which was established in 2010. “I would like to ask Mr Choi to tackle this matter in frames of a forthcoming visit of our Minister of Justice to Your country scheduled December of 2012,” he added. The same day, Mr Choi discussed issues with the vice Minister of Labour on prolonging an agreement on exchanging labour force signed in 2007 and on accelerating a matter about adopting the quota of labour force to be imported to Mongolia in 2013. As of today, some 2,000 N.Koreans are working here, the vice Minister said. Mongolia wants to augment the number of the workers to 3,000-5,000. Furthermore, the vice Minister said Mongolia aspires to develop the collaboration between the construction military units. B.Khuder