North Korea, Vietnam Mark Party Congresses with Photo Exhibition

SEOUL, May 15 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has held a celebratory event to mark the recent key party congress of both the North and Vietnam, state media reported Friday. The photography exhibition, hosted by the Vietnamese Embassy in Pyongyang, was held at Taedonggang Diplomatic Club on Thursday, featuring videos, photos and archival materials highlighting the friendship and cooperation between the two countries' leaders past and present, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. The event was attended by Pak Sang-gil, vice minister of foreign affairs, and Vietnamese Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung, who is currently visiting the North as a special envoy of Vietnamese President To Lam, and Le Ba Vinh, Vietnam's ambassador to Pyongyang, among others. North Korea held its ninth congress of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea in February, and Vietnam convened the 14th national congress of the Communist Party in January. On the same day, Trung visited the Juche Tower and a school tasked with grooming and training elite party cadres, the report said. Trung arrived in North Korea on Tuesday and met with North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui and Kim Song-nam, secretary of the Workers' Party's central committee and chief of its international affairs department, the following day. His visit came amid warming ties between the two countries following the summit in October when Lam traveled to Pyongyang in the first visit by a Vietnamese top leader to the North in 18 years.