AFP, LAGOS: Nigeria is in talks with North Korea's isolated regime about acquiring advanced missile technology for the west African country's armed forces, a senior official told AFP on Wednesday.
Nigeria's Vice President Atiku Abubakar met his North Korean counterpart Yang Hyong Sop on Tuesday in the Nigerian capital Abuja for wide-ranging bilateral talks, Atiku's office announced.
Among items on the agenda was Nigeria's hopes of obtaining missile technology and the know-how to set up a “multi-purpose foundry” for civilian use from North Korea, Atiku's spokesman Onu Kaba Ojo told AFP.
Following the meeting, Atiku's office released a statement saying: “He assured that government would continue to cooperate with the Korean government in the defence sector, an area in which both Nigeria and North Korea have cooperated over the years.”
Ojo said that the defence talks went on behind closed doors, but that according to a note prepared for the Nigerian leader, “The area they discussed was missile technology and a multi-purpose foundry.”
News that Nigeria is seeking military ties with Pyongyang may anger North Korea's arch-foe Washington, which sees President Olusegun Obasanjo's administration as a friend in Africa.
The White House is locked in a diplomatic stand-off with Kim Jong-Il's totalitarian regime over its bid to build a nuclear arsenal and its export of missile technology to regimes considered unfriendly by Washington.
