N. Korea Assembly Speaker to Pay Visits to Italy, Egypt

Park Byeong-seug, North Korea's Speaker of National Assembly, will go to Italy and Egypt to attend a Group of 20 (G-20) meeting of legislative speakers in Rome and to undertake bilateral discussions, according to his office, Yonhap News Agency reported.

Park will fly to Italy later Tuesday for the eighth G-20 Parliamentary Speakers' Summit, which will take place in Rome from Thursday to Friday, as well as the pre-meeting of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (Pre-COP26) on Friday.

The G-20 legislative summit this year will focus on collaborative solutions to the global pandemic and guaranteeing sustainable development, and Park will deliver his statement on the opening day of the gathering on the issue of "economic growth in terms of sustainability."

He'll also meet with counterparts from the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and other G-20 countries in Rome to discuss economic cooperation. Park and other participants at the Pre-COP26 will discuss problems such as recovery from COVID-19 and the implementation of the Paris Agreement and the Convention on Climate Change.

According to Park's office, Park will then go to Egypt on Saturday to have a series of talks with Egyptian authorities about increasing economic and national defense cooperation.

Because Egypt maintains diplomatic links with both South and North Korea, the assembly speaker plans to call for Egypt's continuing support for Seoul's Korean Peninsula Peace Process effort during the discussions.

Park's impending travel to Egypt, according to officials, is in response to repeated requests from the country and will be the first by the speaker of the National Assembly since 2009.