North Korea’s economy is so ‘dire’ it had to close embassies in Hong Kong, Spain and Africa to save money
- North Korea’s state media in the last week announced ‘farewell visits’ by 4 of its ambassadors, with experts warning more such diplomatic departures are likely
- Pyongyang’s dire economic situation has only worsened since it sealed its borders in 2020 as a pandemic precaution
From Angola to Hong Kong, North Korea is rapidly shuttering its overseas embassies, as Pyongyang’s economy sputters and Kim Jong-un embraces ‘new Cold War’ diplomacy with Russia, experts say.
North Korea’s state media has in the last week announced “farewell visits” by its ambassadors to African allies Uganda and Angola, and closed up shop in Hong Kong and Spain, local authorities said, with experts warning more such diplomatic departures are likely.
The last time the nuclear-armed country dropped diplomatic missions on this scale was in the mid-to-late 1990s when the country was hit by a famine in which hundreds of thousands of people died – estimates range into the millions.
“This is the first time that such a large number of embassies have been withdrawn since the Arduous March in the 1990s,” said the former North Korean deputy ambassador to London, Thae Yong-ho.
Thae, who defected to the South in 2016 and is now a ruling party lawmaker, said the closures “show that UN sanctions against North Korea are working well around the world.”
North Korea’s embassies in Africa were until recently lucrative endeavours, allowing the country to earn hard cash for its services from construction to military deals, but the tightening of global sanctions over Kim’s banned weapons programmes has started to bite, experts say.
Now, even Pyongyang’s far-flung traditional allies “are having difficulties making financial payments to North Korea [so] it has no choice but to close its embassies,” Thae said.