A report reaching our desk intimates that the visit of North Korea’s ceremonial head of state, Kim Yong Nam, who arrived on Wednesday, is all but with the aim of sealing deals to strengthen security ties.

President Museveni receives North Korea's ceremonial head of state Kim Yong-nam on March 27, 2008. Yong-nam is back in Uganda with the aim of sealing deals to strengthen security ties

“We are received a high-level delegation from North Korea,” Tamale Mirundi, spokesman for President Yoweri Museveni said. “The president and Kim Yong Nam will be holding talks to strengthen further bilateral relations.” “He is arriving at 8pm,” said a source at State House who preferred anonymity since he is not authorized to speak on its behalf.

He added that North Korea had already started training Ugandan police in martial arts, and was “training our marine units” and was also “engaged in the health sector”.

President Museveni has previously dismissed criticism of security deals and military training with North Korea. He denies any purchase of arms and says it has bought only “non-lethal equipment” from the Asian state to disperse protestors.

Its understood the deal between Kampala and Pyongyang will be wrapped as soon as possible in Yong-nam’s four-day visit with more North Korean officers to further train Ugandan tank crews and special forces with the earlier batch already fighting in Somalia against Al-Qaeda-linked Al Shabaab insurgents, as part of a UN-backed African Union force while others are in South Sudan, backing government forces against rebel troops, as well leading AU efforts to hunt down Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in the Central African Republic.