Almost 20 years after Malaysia and North Korea signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in information, officials from both countries met in Kuala Lumpur yesterday to discuss its progress.
Led by Vice Chairman of Public Information Committee Jong Yong Chol, the four-man North Korean side expressed optimism to continue cooperation with Malaysia.
Possible cooperation were exchange of radio, television, film and documentary programmes.
Bernama, the Malaysian National News Agency, is ready to step up news exchange with Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), such as on sports, economic and culture. Both are members of the Organisation of Asia Pacific News Agencies (OANA).
Apart from talks at Angkasapuri, the North Korean delegation visited Radio and Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) and Wisma Bernama at Jalan Tun Razak today. They even stayed for lunch before heading for Putrajaya to visit the federal administrative capital.
During his visit to Bernama, Jong was surprised when I showed him photographs of the 1992 meeting in Pyongyang.
I was a young reporter then who had accompanied the Information Minister, the late Tan Sri Mohamed Rahmat (still Datuk at the time) to Pyongyang for the talks.
It was a memorable trip partly because I was a last-minute inclusion in the minister's delegation that also visited Fukuoka in Japan.
In a way, it reflected the importance of Bernama to report about such landmark event in Pyongyang.
I remember taking along my Olivetti typewriter to file reports. After typing down the stories, I had to look around for telex facility to relay the stories home.
The minister managed to convince the North Korean side to take us up to Panmunjom, at the border of North and South Korea -- a trip that taught me a lot about international relations.
We even met the late North Korean President Kim Il-sung and had a group photograph with him, which appeared prominently on the front-page of the leading newspaper on 26 May, 1992.
