Belarus and North Korea strengthen ties amid global sanctions
North Korea and Belarus signed an agreement on trade and economic cooperation, the North Korean agency KCNA reported on Friday, without providing details of the deal. Both parties also discussed ways to strengthen cooperation in agriculture, the machinery industry, public health, and education.
The document was signed in Pyongyang on Thursday during a meeting of the Belarusian delegation, led by Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Shuleyko, with North Korean Deputy Prime Minister Jong Myong Su.
"Issues of practical mutual cooperation in various sectors, including agriculture, the machinery industry, public health, trade, and education, were discussed in detail during the meeting," KCNA noted.
This was the third meeting of the intergovernmental committee for trade and economic cooperation, and the first since June 2006.
The Yonhap agency points out that cooperation between the two countries in the field of machinery could violate UN Security Council resolutions prohibiting member states from supplying North Korea with industrial machinery.
Belarus is one of the few countries with which isolated North Korea is strengthening economic ties, in the face of severe international sanctions. Both regimes are close allies of Russia and support its invasion of Ukraine.
