North Korean Diplomats Expected

North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Pak Myong Guk, accompanied by a delegation, departed from Pyongyang over the weekend for a visit to Non-Aligned Movement member states Syria and Iran, state media announced.
According to Korean Central News Agency, the group of North Korean Foreign Ministry officials will also visit Azerbaijan and Mongolia.
No further details of the schedule or purpose of the trip were released and it is still unclear which country the officials will visit first.
The delegation was photographed by South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency while leaving the airport in Beijing on Saturday.
The trip comes as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea continues to seek to strengthen ties with its traditional friends and to increase trade with these countries, as negotiations with the US over sanctions relief remain stalled.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also said on Sunday that he planned to visit North Korea.

“The date of this trip will be set and announced soon,” IRIB News quoted Zarif as saying. 

North Korea’s top diplomat, Ri Yong Ho, whose country faces international and US sanctions, visited Iran in August as the United States reintroduced sanctions against Tehran.