Kim’s first guest in N Korea? Assad

SyRIAN president Bashar al-Assad plans to pay a state visit to North Korea, the North’s official news agency says.

It would be the first time North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has hosted a head of state since assuming power in 011 and comes as he is involved in a flurry of diplomatic activity.

No date for Assad’s visit was mentioned by the North Korea’s KCNA state news agency. It quoted Assad as saying: ‘I am going to visit and meet Kim Jong-un.’

Assad was also quoted as saying that he was sure Kim would ‘achieve the final victory and realise the reunification of Korea without fail’.

Syria and North Korea have been accused of co-operating on chemical weapons, but both deny the accusations. A UN report leaked in February accused the North of making 40 shipments to Syria between 01 and 017 of materials including acid-resistant tiles, valves and pipes that could be used to make chemical weapons.

Assad has been accused of using chemical weapons during the nation’s seven-year civil war.

Kim met China’s president, Xi Jinping, in China in March and May, and is expected to attend a summit with President Donald Trump in Singapore on June 1 .

In April, Kim became the first North Korean leader to set foot in the South since the end of the Korean War in 1953 when he shook hands at the border with South Korean leader Moon Jae-in.