The Ways of North Korean Presence in Africa

Despite being known as a closed society and an isolated state, North Korea maintains relations with more than 160 states worldwide in various ways. The network of foreign relations formed by the Kim İl Sung administration during the Cold War was mainly an outcome of Pyongyang’s efforts to gain international legitimacy. Those diplomatic efforts were reciprocated more in the Third World of which Africa is also a part. Despite the international sanctions due to its nuclear missile tests, North Korea’s relations with African states have continued in different ways. It is observed that North Korea is still able to make its presence felt across Africa in a wide range of fields ranging from politics to trade and from defense industry to monument construction. In this paper, we aim at answering how an isolated state can sustain this sort of presence and why African states tenaciously maintain their relations with such an isolated state.