Time to establish ties with NoKor — PDP-Laban

It’s time for the country to establish relations with North Korea now that the reclusive kingdom appears to be opening up to the rest of the world, the ruling PDP-Laban said yesterday.

The statement was issued by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, who is national vice chairman of PDP-Laban, following the recent summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore.

Cusi said the time is ripe to improve the Philippines’ ties with its Asian neighbors.

“As part of our independent foreign policy, the Philippines should not hesitate to reframe our relations with countries that we have not significantly engaged with in the past,” Cusi said.

He said the PDP-Laban is ready to facilitate closer ties with North Korea and is in the process of doing so.

Cusi said the PDP-Laban is sending a delegation to Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital.

The delegation, led by PDP-Laban vice president for international affairs Raul Lambino, will meet their counterparts from the ruling party, the Workers’ Party of Korea.

“The PDP Laban delegation is charged with the task of forging closer party-to-party and people-to-people ties between our two countries. We offer to the DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) our services to help establish more formal relations between our governments,” Cusi said.

The Philippines and North Korea first established formal relations on July 12, 2000, when then foreign affairs secretary Domingo Siazon Jr. and North Korean Ambassador to Thailand Jo In-chol signed a joint communiqué declaring the establishment of relations at the ambassadorial level.

The PDP-Laban established formal ties with the Communist Party of China and United Russia during the current Duterte administration.

President Duterte is chairman of PDP-Laban while Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III is the party’s president.