Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko has announced plans to visit North Korea in a bid to “diversify” trade, shortly after the DPRK leader’s sister denied that Pyongyang had proposed a top-level summit between the two countries.

“In the near future, we are planning visits — we will settle on the timing later — to the People’s Republic of China, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and many other countries,” Lukashenko told journalists on Sunday as the country held a presidential election.

The autocratic leader once again wonthe popular vote by a landslide of 87%, securing his seventh term in office