Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has ordered the opening of an embassy in North Korea, a day after he signed a new friendship agreement with leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang. 

Foreign Minister Maxim Ryzhenkov announced the plan on Friday following the president’s return to Belarus, according to the state-run Belta news agency.

“The president has set very concrete tasks. First, to open our embassy here in response to the DPRK Embassy that has long operated in the Republic of Belarus,” he said.

While North Korea maintains an embassy in Minsk, Belarus has no diplomatic presence in the DPRK.

Lukashenko has