North Korean and Russian officials this week expressed mutual support for logging industry cooperation and hopes for the lifting of UN sanctions, according to a statement released Thursday by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the country’s embassy in Pyongyang.

A delegation of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade, including business leaders, traveled to Pyongyang earlier in the week for “negotiations within the framework of the Sub-Committee on the Forest Industry,” it added.

Regarding UN sanctions on North Korean labor, the statement also said both sides “expressed hope of achieving the weakening and, ultimately, lifting of restrictions” on