North Korea's No. 2 on African tour

By John Grobler

WINDHOEK (Reuters) - North Korea's number two leader on Thursday started a three-country African tour in Namibia, a leading uranium producer with longstanding ties to the reclusive communist state.

Kim Yong-nam, president of the presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, will officially open Namibia's new North Korean-built presidential residence and discuss trade and political relations, Namibian officials said.

They declined to say whether cooperation on uranium enrichment would be discussed with North Korea, under international pressure to abandon its nuclear weapons program in exchange for aid.

Namibia is the world's fifth-largest uranium miner and recently announced it would develop plans to enrich locally mined uranium in conjunction with the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Kim will hold talks with President Hifikepunye Pohamba and predecessor Sam Nujoma, whose struggle to overthrow the rule of apartheid South Africa won the backing of North Korea and other communist states.

North Korea established diplomatic relations with Namibia when it won independence under Nujoma in 1990.

An expert on North Korea at Korea University in Seoul, Yoo Ho-yeol, noted that Kim's visit could be meant to further diplomatic ties and also boost economic cooperation.

"More than anything else, business is a major issue for North Korea when it comes to diplomacy. You could say North Korea is always looking for ways to see if it could sell things that it's got, not necessarily weapons," he said.

NAMIBIA WANTS CO-OPERATION

Pohamba said in a statement that Namibia wanted to explore further co-operation in trade and commerce, transport and communication, defense, agriculture and energy with North Korea.

"Our two countries are also working actively as members of the U.N. to contribute to the reform of the U.N. system to make it more democratic and representative in order to bring about fair and just global trade," Pohamba added.

The top U.S. negotiator with North Korea said on Wednesday Pyongyang was not yet ready to provide an accurate description of its nuclear programs but he expects them to do so eventually.

A 2005 accord under which North Korea agreed to abandon all its nuclear programs in exchange for economic and diplomatic benefits has been bogged down by Pyongyang's failure to produce a declaration of its nuclear programs by the end of last year.

Kim's visit to Namibia came in for criticism from local human rights activists and newspapers.

The National Society for Human Rights said its reservations about the visit should be seen in line with opposition to "the systematic and gross human rights violations occurring in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea."