S. Korean parliament speaker asks for Vietnam's role in N. Korean reform

SEOUL, Nov. 15 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's National Assembly speaker Kim Hyong-o
met with his Vietnamese counterpart in Hanoi on Sunday and asked Vietnam to help
open up North Korea toward the international community, Kim's office said.
"Vietnam is a model of development for North Korea that shows it can also develop
if it opens up and reforms itself," Kim said during a meeting with Nguyen Phu
Trong, chairman of the Vietnam National Assembly.
Kim's remarks were provided by his spokesman, Heo Yong-bom, in Seoul.
Vietnam is one of North Korea's few remaining socialist allies. North Korea
militarily helped Hanoi in the Vietnam War.
The two speakers also pledged cooperation in implementing a series of accords
reached between President Lee Myung-bak and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen
Minh Triet during their summit in Hanoi last month. The leaders had agreed to
upgrade the relationship between their countries to a "strategic cooperative
partnership" and establish dialogue between their defense and foreign ministries.
Vietnam hosts next year's ASEAN Plus Three, a forum between the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations and the three East Asian nations -- South Korea, China
and Japan -- while South Korea chairs the G20 economic summit, a meeting of the
world's 20 advanced and developing economies, in November next year.
"It is time for the two countries to exert their respective leadership on the
world stage," Kim said, according to his spokesman. "Let's closely cooperate so
that we can successfully achieve our chair roles."
hkim@yna.co.kr
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