JAKARTA (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has invited Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to visit his country in a letter delivered by the communist nation's number two leader, the Jakarta government said Tuesday.
Kim Yong-nam, North Korea's ceremonial head of state, extended the invitation to Yudhoyono during a bilateral meeting at the presidential palace in Jakarta earlier in the day, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said.
Though they share the same surname, Kim Yong-nam is unrelated to the leader's family and serves as president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, the North's rubber-stamp parliament. He is considered second in line to Kim Jong-un who took over the communist state after his father Kim Jong-il died of a heart attack in December.
Yudhoyono replied he will consider visiting North Korea, according to Natalegawa.
The sides also reaffirmed their countries' longstanding friendly relations and discussed issues of mutual interest, including regional and global issues, he said.
Kim Yong-nam explained recent developments on the Korean Peninsula and his country's April 13 launch of a satellite, to which Yudhoyono responded by stressing the importance of dialogue and mutual respect in inter-Korean relations, the minister said.
The rocket carrying the satellite exploded soon after lift-off, but the launch prompted the United Nations Security Council to tighten sanctions on Pyongyang for defying a ban on tests of ballistic missile technology.
The number two North Korean leader has been on a two-nation trip that also took him to Singapore last week. (Yonhap)
