Written by 丨 Zhou Yu
North Korean Foreign Minister Lee Yong-ho, who was very busy in 2018, set out again for a visit to Vietnam at the end of November. He arrived in Vietnam on the evening of the 29th and ended his visit on December 2.
This is the "Nth" time Li Yonghao has gone abroad this year. According to the political knowledge (WeChat ID: bqzhengzhiju), Li Yonghao's overseas travel abroad this year includes:
United States, September 25. Meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo; attends and speaks at the United Nations General Assembly.
Iran, August 7. Led an official visit to Iran by a delegation from the DPRK government.
August 3, Singapore. Attended the Regional Forum Foreign Ministers' Meeting.
Singapore, June 12. Accompanied Kim Jong-un to the "Kim Special Meeting".
Azerbaijan and Russia, April 4. Visit both countries.
March 15, Sweden. At that time, it was interpreted by the outside world as "paving the way" for the DPRK-US summit meeting.
This is not unrelated to the major changes that have taken place in North Korea this year, and the political governor will not repeat it. However, Li Yonghao's trip to Vietnam showed different characteristics.
According to the disclosure, Li Yonghao will investigate Vietnam's reform and opening up model - "innovation and opening up".
Combined with the various economic moves of the DPRK's top level since the beginning of this year, the DPRK's future plans are gradually being drawn.
<h1>The dates of the visit to Vietnam are well designed</h1>
When it comes to Li Yonghao's visit to Vietnam, one of the highlights is the time of the visit.
November 29 to December 2 is the same date as the first visit to Vietnam by former North Korean leader Kim Il Sung 60 years ago.
This is a positive attitude that cherishes the relationship between the two countries.
This arrangement has also received a response from the Vietnamese side. When meeting with Li Yonghao, Vietnamese Vice Premier and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh said: "Foreign Minister Lee Yong Ho's visit to Vietnam on the day of Comrade Kim Il Sung's visit to Vietnam is of special significance. ”
△ Li Yonghao and Fan Pingming
According to public disclosures, Li Dunhhao's visit arrangements included discussing with Pham Binh Minh on a plan to promote exchanges and cooperation between the two countries, visiting ho Chi Minh's tomb, and making a courtesy visit to Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.
In addition to these political activities, Li Yonghao's itinerary also includes visiting two major industrial parks in northern Vietnam, such as the Hanoi Hi-Tech Industrial Park, to learn the process and achievements of its investment attraction, and to formally investigate Vietnam's reform and opening up model - "innovation and opening up".
Lee Yong Ho has already expressed praise to Pham Binh Minh for Vietnam's tremendous development in recent years. He said that he had come to Vietnam 8 years ago, and from the time he entered the country in the evening to the meeting place the next day, he saw the great development of Hanoi and Vietnam.
Zheng Zhijian (WeChat ID: bqzhengzhiju) noted that the two Hanoi hi-tech parks visited by Li Yonghao were developed by offering preferential tax rates and other regulations to attract foreign investors.
Lee Yong Ho spent 3 days and 4 nights in Vietnam and expressed great interest in Vietnam's economic development model, all pointing to the main purpose of the trip.
A response by Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Thi Thi Choi Heng before Lee Dun Ho's visit to Vietnam also corroborates the main issue of "economy." She expressed the hope that Vietnam would share its experience in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
<h1>Why Vietnam</h1>
Li Yonghao's visit to Vietnam to "learn the scriptures" should have been planned earlier. It was revealed that when Kim Jong-un met with Moon in April this year, Kim Jong-un specifically mentioned the possibility of North Korea adopting the Vietnamese model.
Although there is still a big gap with China's achievements in the past 40 years of reform and opening up, Vietnam can also be regarded as an excellent performance in the past few decades. Since 1986, reforms have lifted Vietnam out of poverty and international isolation, making it one of the largest manufacturing and trading nations in Southeast Asia.
In the past 32 years, Vietnam has started from manufacturing industry to the current Internet economy, which can be said to be "touching China across the river". In addition to being affected by the two financial crises in 1997 and 2008, Vietnam's economy has been developing rapidly.
According to the Vietnam Bureau of Statistics, Vietnam's GDP in the first half of this year increased by 7.1% year-on-year. In the five years from 2013 to 2017, the average GDP growth rate of Vietnam was also as high as 6.2%, worthy of the title of "Tiger of Southeast Asia".
Vietnam's long-term development has been underpinned by its strategic location, abundant energy, investment-attracting policies and demographic dividend.
Although Vietnam's export-oriented economic model has achieved little success, its drawbacks are also very obvious, that is, it is too dependent on foreign trade and insufficient endogenous power. In 2017, for example, Vietnam's total imports and exports were almost twice as high as GDP. This means that there are more international orders, the domestic economy is good, and the orders are fewer, and the economy is poor.
According to the analysis of Vietnamese economic experts, Vietnam in the 1980s and North Korea today have many similar situations. But Vietnam's reforms, which include privatization of state-owned enterprises, relaxation of foreign investment regulations, and export-supportive policies, argue that North Korea needs to implement broader reforms before accepting FDI.
<h1>North Korea's path to economic development</h1>
After the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula broke the deadlock and the DPRK and the DPRK and the United States resumed dialogue, the DPRK's all-out economic development was put on the agenda.
One of the most obvious signs was the Third Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea in May. At this meeting, there were many strong signal statements:
Kim Jong-un explained that at the current stage when the DPRK is steadily leaping to the status of a world-class political and ideological power and a military power, the whole party and the whole country should concentrate all their forces on socialist economic construction, and this is our party's strategic line. We must hold high the title "Concentrate All Forces on Socialist Economic Construction and Further Accelerate the Advance of our Revolution!" The battle slogan of the revolution and the great march of economic construction are vigorously launched. The cabinet and other economic guidance organs should stand firmly in the position of masters of economic work. In the struggle to concentrate all forces on socialist economic construction, the role of the Party and mass organizations, organs of political power, legal institutions, and organs of force should be strengthened.
In September, North Korea held a military parade to celebrate its 70th anniversary. During the military parade, Kim Yong-nam, chairman of the Permanent Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK, delivered a speech. He stressed the achievements made by the DPRK in the field of economic construction in recent years and proposed to implement the strategic line of concentrating all forces on economic construction put forward by the Third Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Workers' Party.
In the statements of the DPRK's top level, learning from other countries is not the first time it has appeared. Before attending the "Kim Summit" in Singapore, Kim Jong-un said when visiting Places such as the Marina Bay Sands Sky Garden and the Jubilee Bridge in Singapore that he would learn more about Singapore's knowledge and experience in various fields in the future.
When North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visits Merlion Park, he plays a selfie with Singaporean Foreign Minister Vivan.
In North Korea, Kim Jong-un's visits have also increased a lot more than before, and the locations of the visits are mostly related to the economic field, such as fish farms, leather bag factories, border port cities, hot spring resorts and so on.
At present, the DPRK's desire to vigorously develop its economy is obvious to all.
Information | Xinhua News Agency Overseas Network Korean Central News Agency Surging Reference News Wen Wei Po