Nicaragua Re-Establishes North Korea Ties
The administration of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has re-established formal diplomatic relations with North Korea and rejected criticism of the Asian country's nuclear weapons program, the government said Thursday.

Relations between the two countries had been suspended since 1990, when Violeta Barrios de Chamorro defeated Ortega in presidential elections and ended 11 years of rule by Ortega's Sandinista Front. As a former Marxist revolutionary and socialist president, Ortega fought a 10-year war with the U.S.-backed Contra rebels.

But Ortega returned to office in January, and on Wednesday he revived relations when he received the credentials of North Korean Ambassador Jae Myong So, the Ministry of Communication said.

"It isn't right, it isn't fair" that some countries "that arm themselves then want to prohibit others from arming themselves in self-defense," Ortega said in an apparent reference to the United States.

Ortega was scheduled to meet Thursday with North Korea's assistant foreign minister, Kim Hyong Jun, during his three-day visit here.

Ortega says he has moderated his views since he led the 1979-1990 Sandinista government.