Top Vietnamese leader to visit N. Korea for 1st time in 18 years

This photo taken in September 2025 in Hanoi shows top Vietnamese leader To Lam

Top Vietnamese leader To Lam will visit North Korea later this week to attend events marking the 80th anniversary of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry said Monday, in the first such trip in 18 years.

Lam is scheduled to pay a three-day state visit from Thursday at the invitation of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to attend a ceremony the following day celebrating the founding anniversary of the ruling party, the ministry said.

In October 2007, Nong Duc Manh, then head of Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party, visited North Korea. Pyongyang is preparing to hold a large-scale military parade to mark the anniversary, according to a source close to South Korea’s armed forces.

In August, Lam became the first foreign leader to visit South Korea since the launch of President Lee Jae Myung’s administration in June. Kim held his second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in 2019 in Hanoi, which ended without a deal.

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency has said Kim has also invited Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith to visit for the anniversary. If realized, it would be the first trip to North Korea by a Laos leader since September 2011.