North Korea and Belarus officially kicked off a new era of relations this week as President Aleksandr Lukashenko told Pyongyang’s first dedicated ambassador to Minsk that he hopes to accelerate cooperation.

“We have an unreasonably low level of relations,” Lukashenko said on Nov. 3, according to Belarusian state news agency Belta. “We need to work more actively in this direction.”

Lukashenko also said that he asked the new DPRK Ambassador, Ju Jong Bong, to focus specifically on improving cooperation in “medication and food production, professional training and professional development.”

The meeting between Ju and the Belarusian president appeared to