North Korea's Vietnam War dead to get first memorial 60 years on

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un steps off the train at Dong Dang Railway Station, Lang Son Province, Vietnam, February 2019. EPA-Yonhap

HANOI — Vietnam will build a memorial and renovate a cemetery dedicated to North Korean servicemen killed fighting during the Vietnam War, state media reported, in a rare public acknowledgement of Pyongyang's military role in the conflict.

North Korea sent fighter pilots to North Vietnam in the 1960s, where some flew Soviet-made MiG-17 jets in combat missions against U.S. aircraft, according to Vietnamese and North Korean state media.

Vietnam and North Korea maintain diplomatic ties dating back to the Cold War, but Pyongyang's direct involvement in the Vietnam War remains little known.

The memorial project was discussed at a meeting chaired by Deputy Defence Minister Nguyen Truong Thang in Hanoi on Monday and attended by North Korean Ambassador Ri Sung Guk, the Defence Ministry's Quan Doi Nhan Dan newspaper reported.

"The Party, State, people, and People's Army of Vietnam always cherish and remember the effective assistance of North Korea and the sacrifices of North Korean martyrs in its struggle for national independence in the past," Quan Doi Nhan Dan quoted Thang as saying.

The memorial will be built as part of restoration work at the North Korean martyrs' cemetery in northern Bac Ninh province, the report said.

The cemetery was established for 14 North Korean air force personnel killed in 1967 and 1968, aged between 19 and 40, according to online newspaper VnExpress. Their remains were repatriated to North Korea in 2002.