Britain will invite a representative of North Korea to attend Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral on Monday, but Afghanistan, Syria and Venezuela will not receive any invitations, a Foreign Office source said on Wednesday, as cited by Reuters, according to Agerpres.

Queen Elizabeth’s funeral will take place in London on September 19, and a host of world leaders, royals and other dignitaries have already announced they will attend.

The invitation for communist North Korea will be sent at the ambassadorial level, the source said. This means that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will not be present. Pyongyang has an embassy in west London.

Which countries did not receive an invitation?

Syria and Venezuela will not be invited as the UK does not currently have diplomatic relations with these countries. According to the source, Afghanistan was not invited due to the current political situation.

These countries joined Russia, Myanmar and Belarus, which were not invited to participate.

Funeral invitations are also sent to all recipients of the Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest military award, and the George Cross, which can also be awarded to civilians.

In total, Foreign Office officials hand-wrote 1,000 invitations to the funeral on Monday and the reception with King Charles on Sunday. The deadline for accepting funeral invitations ends tomorrow, after which officials will finalize the seating plan for each attendee.