Thais encouraged to invest in North Korea

Thais encouraged to invest in North Korea

Pyongyang envoy makes historic visit

Foreign Minister Tanasak Patimapragorn poses with visiting North Korean counterpart Ri Su-yong before their meeting at the ministry on Monday. (Photo by Chanat Katanyu)
Foreign Minister Tanasak Patimapragorn poses with visiting North Korean counterpart Ri Su-yong before their meeting at the ministry on Monday. (Photo by Chanat Katanyu)

North Korea wants Thai investors to do business in the country while Thailand has offered to be a bridge between the hermit country and the rest of the international community, Foreign Minister Tanasak Patimapragorn said Monday.

Gen Tanasak said he had discussed a number of bilateral issues with his visiting North Korean counterpart Ri Su-yong, including a trade cooperation deal allowing Thai investors to invest in North Korea's special economic zone.

Thai company Loxley Plc had invested in North Korean telecoms in 1996, but the concession was suspended in 2004.

Gen Tanasak said the two ministers had also discussed bilateral cooperation in information technology, health, education and other regional issues. Thailand had also offered to facilitate talks between North Korea and any countries it had conflict with, he said.

Mr Ri had told Gen Tanasak that authorities would follow up the case of Anocha Panjoy, a Thai national who was reportedly abducted from Macau to North Korea in 1978. However, the Thai foreign minister said the issue of rice debt payment was not touched upon but would be discussed in later sideline talks.

Mr Ri also passed on good wishes from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to Her Majesty Queen Sirikit for her 83rd birthday. He invited Gen Tanasak to visit North Korea as part of the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two Asian countries.

The exchange of diplomatic visits began in May when deputy foreign minister Don Pramudwinai visited Pyongyang. Mr Ri is the first top North Korean diplomat to visit Thailand in a decade, after previous foreign minister Paek Nam-sun visited in 2005. During his trip, Mr Ri visited royal projects and agricultural sites. He left for Brunei today for the last leg of his Asean trip.

Gen Tanasak said the Thai government was considering setting up an embassy in Pyongyang but did not elaborate on timing. "To build an embassy in any country is a good sign but all related processes must be carefully considered, including staff and budgets," he said.

Earlier this year, the North Korean ambassador to Thailand, Mun Song-mo, asked the government to set up a diplomatic compound in Pyongyang. However, a government source said this would not happen in the near future.

Five of 10 Asean countries - Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia and Vietnam - have set up diplomatic missions in the North Korean capital.

The government source said diplomatic ties between Thailand and North Korea were quite smooth, especially as Thailand had played a key role in bringing North Korea to the Asean Regional Forum in 2000, when Thailand held the Asean chairmanship. However, the outstanding issues of the disappearance of Ms Anocha and North Korea's rice debt payment must be resolved, the source said.

According to the Commerce Ministry, the rice debt plus interest comes to $292.76 million (10.3 billion baht), for a deal where Thailand exported 750,000 tons of rice to North Korea from 1993 to 2002.

Bilateral trade between North Korea and Thailand in the first half of 2015 was valued at $42 million, with exports from Thailand worth $39 million. Trade values in 2014 and 2013 were $126 million and $114 million respectively.

Before Monday's meeting between the foreign ministers, Phil Robertson, Human Right Watch's deputy director for the Asia division, called on Gen Tanasak to demand the return of Ms Anocha. He referred to confirmation by former American serviceman Charles Jenkins and his wife who said they saw Ms Anocha living in the hermit country.

"If North Korea is really a true friend of Bangkok, it should address the continuing tragedy of Anocha, whose family are continuing to campaign for her release and return home," Mr Robertson said.

Thailand is one of the countries used by North Korean defectors as a transit point to reach and resettle in another country.

The government source said the number of North Koreans who illegally entered Thailand in the past few years has decreased from around 2,000 to around 500, due to a border restriction enforced when Kim Jong-un came to power in 2011.

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