Vietnam leader, after N.Korea visit, to go to Seoul

By Grant McCool

HANOI (Reuters) - The leader of Vietnam's ruling Communist Party is to visit South Korea next week, a month after he made a rare trip to North Korea, as Hanoi boosts ties on both sides of the divided Korean peninsula.

A Vietnam government spokesman said on Thursday that Communist Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh, Vietnam's most senior politician, will visit Seoul from November 14-16, the first party chief to visit in 12 years.

South Korean news agency Yonhap quoted South Korean presidential spokesman Cheon Ho-seon as saying that "Notably, Manh will explain the outcome of his visit to North Korea in October".

Vietnam has diplomatic ties with both Koreas and Manh, a former forestry engineer who has been Party chief since 2001, received a red-carpet welcome in Pyongyang from leader Kim Jong-il on October 16.

South Korea is the biggest investor in Vietnam's fast-expanding economy, but Hanoi and Pyongyang have done almost no trade since 1996.

Under an international pact, North Korea has agreed to disable its nuclear weapons capability by the end of the year.

A spokesman for Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Manh's visit was part of "the development and prosperity of each country, making positive contributions to peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world".

Manh would hold talks with President Roh Moo-hyun, meet the chairman of the parliament and heads of major corporations, the spokesman told a news briefing.

Political and economic analysts say Vietnam could provide a development model for impoverished North Korea.

Vietnam's economy growing at more than 8 percent a year under market reforms and has expanding international relations.

Vietnam, which was elected to a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council last month, has said it was willing to play an active role in Korean peace efforts.

The two Koreas remain technically at war half a century after the truce that halted the 1950-53 Korean War. No peace treaty was ever signed.

North Korean Premier Kim Yong-il, who is in charge of economic policy, visited four Southeast Asian countries -- Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia and Laos -- from October 26 to November 7, a rare trip by a senior Pyongyang official.