Cuba and South Korea: What does the historic restoration of diplomatic ties between North Korea’s “brother country” Seoul and the island mean?

Cuba and South Korea re-established their diplomatic relations after more than six decades of rupture.

They formalized it this Wednesday at the United Nations headquarters in New York, where their representatives exchanged notes pending the opening of their respective embassies.

The two countries communicated the news of the restoration of diplomatic relations relatively discreetly. The secrecy that marked their negotiations In recent years.

Seoul’s foreign ministry released a statement in which it hoped the new alliance would mark a “decisive turning point” in efforts to expand its diplomatic horizons and strengthen diplomacy with Latin America and the Caribbean.

It is considered a historic step for both the countries, which They established diplomatic relations in 1949 but severed them ten years laterWhen the Cuban Revolution triumphed and its leader Fidel Castro imposed communist rule in the Latin American country.

Cuba has been ever since A close ally of North KoreaAnother communist stronghold in the world that has not yet embraced a market economy is in a state of technological war with South Korea.

This was a major obstacle for Havana and Seoul to restore their relationship.

But they have finally done it.

Diplomatic reunification between Cuba and South Korea has been a pending issue for years, with the two sides negotiating under strict secrecy.

“Our last governments tried many times without success to restore relations with Cuba,” a South Korean diplomatic source told BBC Mundo on condition of anonymity.

This is attributed to the source delay Diplomatic pressure from North KoreaA close ally of Cuba since the 1960s, as well as the reluctance of senior Cuban leaders of the old guard.

“It seems that there was some kind of commitment not to take that step from the time of Fidel Castro and Kim Il-sung,” revealed a former official in Havana.

The historic leader of Cuba and the founder of North Korea forged a strong political relationship between their countries that continues to this day.

A good example of this is the North Korean Embassy in Havana. Kim Jong-un’s longest reign in America and the nerve center of its diplomatic activity in the region.

The presence of embassies of both Koreas in the same country is not an exception, as it is found in many places, from China and Russia to Spain or the United Kingdom.

However, a South Korean diplomat indicated, “Cuba is of great symbolic importance to North Korea because It is the base of its operations in AmericaAnd that’s why he’s always pressured the Cuban government to stay away from Seoul.”

In any case, the close friendship between Havana and Pyongyang contrasted with their practically non-existent economic and trade exchanges.

And that’s not all: Economic and cultural ties between Cuba and South Korea — North Korea’s enemy and United States ally — have intensified in recent years.

Despite the lack of diplomatic relations, Havana and Seoul traded 2022 worth of products US$21 million14 million of which were exported from the Asian country to the Caribbean, according to data from the Korea Trade Association (KOTRA).

This is noticeable in daily life on the island: Hyundai and Kia cars are common among its limited fleet of vehicles, and some establishments selling household appliances offer South Korean brands such as Samsung and LG, although prices are out of reach for the average Cuban. .

South Korean companies have a good share of stands at Cuban trade fairs such as the Havana International Fair (FIHAV).

To compensate for the lack of an embassy, ​​South Korea maintains Cotra – its state trade association – headquartered in the Cuban capital for economic exchanges between the two countries, and conducts diplomatic affairs from its diplomatic headquarters in Mexico City.

South Korea does not see Cuba as a potential source of revenue for the state or its multinational conglomerates (whose global sales reach twelve-digit figures) and there are other reasons for close ties.

“It is a geographically strategic country, close to the United States, and Positioning ourselves there is important in the long run” said a South Korean diplomatic source.

On the other hand, with the opening of a legation in the Cuban capital, South Korea gained a point against North Korea at a time when the two countries maintain a tense standoff.

The shock is not only symbolic Loss of political and diplomatic influence Its counterpart in the Americas, headed by President Miguel Diaz-Canel, is the communist regime of Kim Jong-un.

On the other hand, South Korea has over the years maintained a policy of extending its cultural influence to the far corners of the globe, and Cuba is no exception.

As in other Latin American countries, many young people on the island consume content from the Asian country, from music to soap operas, and local South Korean fan clubs now have more than 10,000 members.

“With an embassy It will be easy to propagate our culture” said a South Korean source.

Finally, South Korea already maintains diplomatic relations with all UN countries except Syria and North Korea.

“Cuba was the last remaining objective to expand our diplomacy,” he said.

Cuba, for its part, already maintains diplomatic relations with all member states of the United Nations except Israel.

The Cuban government attaches particular importance to diplomacy as a way to legitimize its political and economic system in the face of international isolation, and as a way to denounce to the world the financial and trade embargo imposed on it by the United States for six decades.

In any case, the benefits it expects from its new relationship with South Korea are more economic.

An already severe financial crisis that Cuba has been experiencing for decades has intensified since the pandemic, creating severe shortages of food, medicine and basic products and the largest exodus of migrants in its history.

This has made the government look for any source of revenue that will help keep the country afloat.

Restoring relationships “opens up a whole range of things to happen, viz Samsung and Hyundai offices open here in Havana Or South Korean companies that have a commercial and economic presence in Cuba today,” political scientist and former Cuban diplomat Carlos Alzugare told BBC Mundo.

“It will be good for the Cuban economy and if, for example, a South Korean company is interested in investing in Cuba, it now has the green light from the South Korean government,” he indicated.

He also highlighted that relations with South Korea would allow Cuba to request beneficial donations or loans from its new diplomatic partner.

“South Korea is one of the countries with more developed programs and Financial resources to provide development cooperationimport credits and technical assistance,” explained Alzugare.

BBC Korean Service journalist Sangmi Han reported that the establishment of diplomatic ties between Havana and Seoul “reaffirms the diplomatic isolation of North Korea, whose place in the international community is shrinking.”

But this is not the only blow to Pyongyang, according to Cho Han-beom, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, a South Korean research institute.

“It is a fact that North Korea’s sister country, Cuba, has established diplomatic relations with South Korea In utmost secrecy without Pyongyang knowingIt will be a huge wound that is hard to accept” for the North Korean people, the analyst said.

However, the BBC reporter indicated that North Korea is unlikely to take such drastic official retaliation as recalling its ambassador to the island.

Meanwhile, after the restoration of diplomatic relations, South Korea has yet to open an embassy in Cuba and vice versa.

A South Korean legation in Havana is expected to be quickly and easily established based on the trade office already in existence.

Its opening will be good news for approx 1,100 people of Korean descent living in CubaAs well as for South Korean tourists who visit the country, which before the pandemic were around 14,000 annually.

In the case of the Cuban embassy in Seoul, experts believe that it will be more complicated and may take longer due to the Latin American country’s budget constraints.

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