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By Yi Whan-woo
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's purported right-hand man Choe Ryong-hae is visiting Cuba, according to Cuba's official news agency Prensa Latina last week.
It said Choe, vice chairman of the Central Committee of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party, arrived in Havana on Aug. 16, as the leader of a delegation.
Choe's visit comes after North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho visited Iran early August, a move seen as a bid to bolster ties with Pyongyang's few remaining allies.
Ri Su-yong, director of the Workers' Party International Affairs Department, also visited Havana in July, meeting President Miguel Diaz-Canel and Raul Castro, first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, and other Cuban leaders.
"Choe is on a working visit to the island and was received yesterday by First Vice President Salvador Valdes, with whom he reviewed ties between both countries," the news agency said.
It said Choe separately met Cuban foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez and shared thoughts on the Pyongyang-Havana ties that date back to the 1960s.
Citing the Cuban foreign ministry, Prensa Latina reported that the meeting took place in "a fraternal context" and that Choe and Rodriguez agreed to "highlight the bonds of brotherhood and fraternity that unite peoples, parties and governments."
Most countries have severed ties with North Korea amid the U.N. Security Council's nuclear sanctions on the Pyongyang regime. But Cuba has maintained ties with North Korea in such areas as education and agriculture.
Analysts speculated that North Korea was trying to invite dignitaries from its allies to visit the north for its founding anniversary celebrations on Sept. 9.
"Choe is a very high-ranking envoy, and his primary goal of visiting Cuba may be to ask for the dispatch of a high-ranking congratulatory delegation," said Yang Moo-jinn, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies.
