DPRK Ambassador Jon Yong Jin (L) meets with the chairmen of the Venezuelan National Assembly Commission on Foreign Policy, Sovereignty and Integration Yul Jabour (C) and Julio Chávez (R) on 4 October 2013 (Photo: Prensa AN).
DPRK Ambassador Jon Yong Jin visited Venezuela during 2 to 4 October. Jon is the DPRK Ambassador to Cuba and Venezuela is one of Jon’s numerous nonresident postings in the Caribbean and South America. On 2 October Jon was part of a group of foreign diplomats who presented their letters of credence to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro Moros. According to KCNA, Maduro “expressed the belief that the friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries would grow stronger on the principle of mutual respect and in the bilateral interests.”
DPRK Ambassador Jon Yong Jin (C) and an unkown DPRK diplomatic official (L) meet with Yul Jabour (R), a chairman of the Venezuelan National Assembly’s Commission on Foreign Policy, Sovereignty and Integration on 4 October 2013 (Photo: ANTV/Cojedes-PSUV).
On 3 October, Jon and other DPRK officials met with the chairmen of the Venezuelan National Assembly’s Commission on Foreign Policy, Sovereignty and Integration, Yul Jabour and Julio Chávez. According to ANTV, Jon Yong Jin expressed the DPRK’s support of Venezuela’s decision to expel three United States [US] diplomats from the country on 30 September and said “it was the measure of an independent country which we support.” Jon also said that in the event of a US attack on Venezuela, the DPRK would “not hesitate to join the fight against the Empire to defend national sovereignty and the Bolivarian Revolution.” Jon also expressed the DPRK’s rejection of “the interventionist policy being conducted by the US through its embassies.” According to Prensa AN, Jon Yong Jin stated that the DPRK attaches a high priority to military affairs in its ideology and “that is why our nation has become a military power, whose driving force are the masses.” Jon also remarked that the DPRK did not possess nuclear weapons to attack other countries, but a defensive measure “to stop the US intention to start a nuclear war” and that Kim Jong Un (Kim Cho’ng-u’n) “said that if a single American bullet falls into our territory , we will launch a missile towards the island of Guam and another aimed at the White House .”
Yul Jabour told Jon that Venezuela attached “special importance” to expanding DPRK-Venezuela relations to “strengthen ties between the people against the ‘dangers that loom’ for those that who declare themselves anti-imperialist and defend their right to self-determination.” Jabour “appreciated the support and solidarity” of the DPRK Ambassador and he said that the National Assembly was “developing the legal context to deepen relations between the two countries.”
Filed under: Central Committee, DPRK Cabinet, DPRK Diplomat Corps, DPRK Energy Policy, DPRK External Relations, DPRK-Venezuela Relations, Jon Yong Jin (MFA), Kim Jong-un, KJI Personal Secretariat, Korean Workers' Party (KWP), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Trade, North Korean press, Supreme People's Assembly
