Castro sends greetings to North Korean leader on national feast
President Raúl Castro sent a message of congratulations to North Korean President Kim Jong Un on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers Party, the Cuban website Cubadebate reported on Saturday (Oct. 10).
“I send you our our warmest felicitations on behalf of the Communist Party of Cuba and our people,” Castro wrote. “I reiterate to you our feelings of friendship and wishes of new successes in the construction of socialism.”
On that day, Kim Jong Un was reviewing a military parade in the capital city, Pyongyang. Representing Cuba at the celebration were José Ramón Balaguer, head of the Communist Party’s international relations department; Deputy Foreign Minister Rogelio Sierra Díaz, and Ambassador Germán Hermín Ferrás Álvarez.
Cuba has maintained diplomatic relations with North Korea since 1960. Fidel Castro visited that country in March 1986 and met with Kim Jong Un’s grandfather, Kim Il Sung.
In late June of this year, Kang Sok Su, the Workers Party’s foreign secretary, traveled to Havana for official discussions. At the time, the [North] Korean Center News Agency reported that “both sides informed each other of their party activities and exchanged views on the issue of boosting the friendly and cooperative relations between the two parties and countries and issues of mutual concern.”
Earlier, in mid-March, Foreign Minister Ri Su Yong, arrived in Cuba for talks with his Cuban counterpart, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla.
More recently, in early September, Cuban vice president Miguel Díaz-Canel went to Pyongyang to mark the 55th anniversary of the establishment of relations between Cuba and North Korea. While there, he attended a concert at the invitation of Kim Jong Un and visited several sites of cultural and historic interest.
[At top photo of Kim Jong Un and Cuban vice president Miguel Díaz-Canel at concert in Pyongyang on Sept. 7.]
