North Korea has closed four embassies. In South Korea, they say that this indicates the difficult economic situation of the country

2023-11-03 11:32:00

North Korean authorities have said that the recent series of embassy closures is “normal” and serves to improve foreign relations. This was Pyongyang’s response according to the authorities of neighboring South Korea, where they consider it a sign of Pyongyang’s difficult economic situation, writes AFP.

Last week, North Korea closed its embassies in Angola and Uganda, which are allies of the Kim Jong Un regime in Africa. In addition, official Pyongyang has suspended its diplomatic missions in Hong Kong and Spain, according to state media and local authorities.

Seoul said this week that the shutdown showed “the dire economic situation in North Korea, where it is difficult to maintain even minimal diplomatic relations with traditional allies.”

But an unnamed representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of North Korea said in response that the changes are “normal”.

“In accordance with the changes in the international situation and foreign policy of the state, we either close or reopen diplomatic missions in other countries,” the official said.

He noted that North Korea had done this many times in the past.

According to South Korea’s Unification Ministry, North Korea has diplomatic relations with more than 150 countries, but the number of missions it maintains abroad has been declining since the 1990s, citing financial problems.

Experts say the last time North Korea abandoned diplomatic missions on such a scale was in the mid-to-late 1990s, when there was a major famine that killed hundreds of thousands of people (some estimate more than a million).