World

North Korea to send Kim Jong Nam to Non-Aligned Movement summit in Iran

August 23, 2012 / 7:45 AM EDT / AP

(AP) SEOUL - North Korea says its nominal head of state will visit Iran to attend an international summit next week.

Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said Thursday that Kim Yong Nam will meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his trip.

Kim Jong Un rules the country, but Kim Yong Nam represents North Korea in most high-level diplomatic affairs.

Iranian and North Korean officials have previously said that the countries are in "one trench" in the fight against the United States and the West.

They are suspected of being close partners in nuclear and missile technologies.

The Non-Aligned Movement was born in 1961 as a bloc of nations that sided neither with NATO nor the Warsaw Pact during the Cold War.

The Non-Aligned Movement summit will run from Sunday to Friday.