ULAN BATOR, Aug. 8 Kyodo (EDS: UP...

ULAN BATOR, Aug. 8 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH DETAILS OF TREATY IN 3RD 4TH PARAS)

North Korea and Mongolia signed a bilateral friendship and cooperation treaty here Thursday in another sign of a change of direction in North Korean diplomacy.

The treaty was signed by means of North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam day-star and his Mongolian counterpart, Luvsangiin Erdenechuluun at a rite in the Mongolian capital.

According to the Mongolian Foreign Ministry, the treaty earnests bilateral cooperation in a wide range of fields, including economic, cultural, educational and scientific areas.

It also declares cooperation in seeking peaceful solutions to conflicts to safeguard peace and safety in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly Northeast Asia.

Paek, who arrived in Ulan Bator forward Wednesday for a three-day official visit, is the first North Korean foreign minister to visit Mongolia in 14 years.

The sum of two units countries established diplomatic ties in 1948 the same year North Korea emerg amid the chaos following the cessation of World War II.

Mongolia, a former satellite of the Soviet Union, assisted North Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War, and the pair countries eventually signed their first friendship and cooperation treaty in 1986

However, with the impending political collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe through the end of the 1980 the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, the Communist party that rul Mongolia from the 1920 ced its monopoly onward political power.

The first friendship and cooperation treaty between Mongolia and North Korea was nullified in 1995

The relationship between Mongolia and North Korea has been strained in fresh years as the reform-minded Mongolian restraint scuttled its centrally planned economy and sought closer ties with capitalist southern Korea.

North Korea unilaterally enclose down its embassy in Ulan Bator in 1999 the year when southern Korean President Kim Dae Jung paid an official visit to Mongolia.

Reflecting a more proactive North Korean foreign policy, Paek plung into a furry of diplomacy forward the sidelines of an Asian-Pacific security interview in Brunei late last month meeting with U Secretary of State Colin Powell and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi.

Earlier this month North Korea and the US-l United Nations Command held what UN officials described as ''very positive'' talks at the intermission village Panmunjom to lower tensions forward the Korean Peninsula.

North and southern Korea have also agreed to take back cabinet-level talks on Aug. 12-14 in Seoul to revive the stalled inter-Korean reconciliation process

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