DPRK official visits Samsung factories in Vietnam

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A senior official of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) visited areas near two Samsung smartphone factories in Vietnam, said Yonhap on Sunday.

The official, Kim Chang Son, member of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK, led a delegation that arrived in Hanoi Saturday to check logistics ahead of the second U.S.-DPRK summit slated for February 27-28.

The delegation left the Vietnamese government's guest house at around 7 a.m. and headed north to Bac Ninh Province where a smartphone production line by Samsung Electronics is located, according to Yonhap.

They then visited another Samsung smartphone factory located in Thai Nguyen Province in the northeastern region.

Samsung factory in Thai Nguyen Province, north of Hanoi, Vietnam, October 13, 2016. /VCG Photo

The trip may suggest that DPRK leader Kim Jong Un will visit the smartphone factories during his visit to Vietnam in late February, which could signal the DPRK's determination to reform and open in terms of its economy, said Yonhap.

Samsung has not received any notice of a visit from authorities, Samsung official said.

Vietnam is the biggest smartphone manufacturer for Samsung. Since Samsung built factories in Bac Ninh in 2008 and Thai Nguyen in 2013, almost half of its smartphones have been produced in Vietnam.

(Cover: Kim Chang Son (C), a close aide to DPRK leader Kim Jong Un, stands between his staff inside Metropole Hotel in Hanoi, Vietnam, February 16, 2019. /VCG Photo)