Sorry Kim, Your Pal Cuba Just Made Friends With South Korea

Jon Herskovitz
·2 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- South Korea established formal diplomatic relations with Cuba, a country whose steadfast loyalty to North Korea had for decades apparently kept it from forging ties with Seoul.

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South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement the two countries’ representatives to the United Nations exchanged diplomatic notes in New York on Wednesday to establish ambassador-level relations. Cuba became the 193rd country to establish official ties with South Korea, it said.

Havana had been one of the few global outliers when it came to forging ties with South Korea, setting itself apart from North Korea’s two biggest backers — the Soviet Union and China, which established formal relations more than 30 years ago as the Cold War ended and they looked to South Korea as a powerful partner for trade.

The announcement had been kept secret to prevent any interruption by North Korea, Yonhap News agency reported, citing sources it did not name. Cuba saw the move as a way of expanding trade with one of the world’s largest economies while South Korea saw the agreement as helping to raise its global profile, Yonhap said, citing unspecified observers.

North Korea’s propaganda apparatus frequently lauds what leader Kim Jong Un has called “precious traditions of friendship” with Havana and their work together to defend what he has called the “dignity” of their joint socialist cause.

In the wake of North and South Korea reaching an agreement that led to the two countries jointly being admitted to the United Nations in 1991, most member states were able to establish diplomatic ties with both parties.

On the same day that Havana signed the deal with Seoul, North Korea’s official media reported that leader Kim received floral baskets from military attaches corps, including long-time partners Vietnam, Russia, China and Cuba, all of which have a strong diplomatic presence in Pyongyang.

--With assistance from Shinhye Kang.

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