A South Korean government source says North Korea has notified Vietnam that it will send a delegation to the ASEAN Regional Forum opening in Hanoi on July 21st. The source says the North’s chief delegate will most likely be Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun.

The source says Pak is scheduled to visit Myanmar and Laos in mid-July and is likely to head to Vietnam directly afterwards to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) forum.

Last year, North Korea sent its ambassador to Namibia to the forum, but the source predicts a heavyweight official will be sent this year to present North Korea’s views on the sinking of South Korea’s “Cheonan” warship. A Seoul-led international investigation into the incident has implicated North Korea in the sinking.

A diplomatic tug of war is expected between the two Koreas, as the South will work to have the chairman’s statement at the forum denounce Pyongyang for the sinking, while the North will reiterate its claim that it had no part in the incident.