South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma will host the Vice-President of the Presidium of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Yang Hyong Sop, who is scheduled to pay an official visit to South Africa from Wednesday to Sunday.
According to the South African foreign affairs department, Vice President Yang Hyong Sop will be accompanied by deputy Foreign Minister Choe Su Hon and the director general of the Ministry of Trade, Hong Chang IL.
During discussions with Deputy President Jacob Zuma on Thursday, it is expected that the status of bilateral political and economic relations between South Africa and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea will be discussed as well as the operation of the organs of the African Union and Nepad (the New Partership for Africa’s Development) as the socio-economic programme of the continent.
According to foreign affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa, Zuma will brief his counterpart on peacekeeping and conflict resolution efforts on the continent including in the Democratic Republic or the Congo, Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire and Sudan.
While in South Africa, Vice President Yang Hyong Sop will also visit the CSIR, the Cullinan Mine, the Apartheid Museum, the Hector Peterson Memorial and the home of former President Nelson Mandela in Soweto.
Mamoepa reported that bilateral trade relations between the two countries were limited.
In 1999 imports from North Korea were R18,3-million compared to exports of R18,1-million. In 2000 this dropped to R17,4-million and R8,3-million respectively.
In 2001 the figures were R8,8-million and just over R9-million respectively while in 2002 imports rose to R13,2-million and exports jumped to R72,7-million
respectively. However, this fell back to just R455Â 000 in imports from North Korea in 2003 while exports slumped to R39,4-million in that year.
In 2004, imports from North Korea rose again to just over one million rand while exports slumped again to just R498Â 000 — total bilateral trade of just R1,5-million.
South African exports to North Korea consist mainly of mineral and chemical products as well as prepared foodstuffs, whilst imports consist mainly of textiles and base metals. – I-Net Bridge