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North Korea Holds Talks With Russian Foreign Ministry: KCNA

North Korea Holds Talks With Russian Foreign Ministry: KCNA

(Bloomberg) -- North Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Im Chon Il met his Russian counterpart Igor Morgulov to discuss boosting high-level contact and economic cooperation, according to North Korean state news agency KCNA.

The pair met in Moscow on Thursday and signed a 2019-2020 plan on communication between the two countries that would also improve exchanges in the “political field,” KCNA said Sunday.

Im also met with Russia’s Vice Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin on Saturday to exchange views on ensuring peace and security on the Korean Peninsula, it said. A separate KCNA report said a delegation of the Russian Federal Assembly arrived in North Korea Saturday.

An agreement that comes into force on Sunday will allow Russia and North Korea to exchange prisoners held in each others’ territories so that they can serve out their sentence at home, according to Russia’s Parlamentskaya Gazeta newspaper. No Russians are currently being detained in North Korea, the paper said, citing Justice Minister Denis Novak. There are 36 North Korean citizens being held in Russian detention centers, according to Russia’s Federal Prison Authority.

--With assistance from Natasha Doff.

To contact the reporter on this story: Hooyeon Kim in Seoul at hkim592@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, John McCluskey

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