North Korea and Malaysia have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) focused on "culture, arts and heritage," North Korean state media said on Thursday, renewing and building upon a previous agreement from 2002.

The agreement is "still in the very early stages," Malaysia's envoy to the DPRK, Ambassador Mohammad Nizan Bin Mohammad, told NK News by telephone on Friday, but is intended to "enhance the bilateral relations between the two countries, in this aspect of cultural and arts-related issues."