North Korea’s ties with Africa date back to the 1970s, when the hermit nation participated in various cultural exchanges across the continent, establishing study groups and research institutes based on its state ideology of self-reliance, known as Juche, the ISS report explained.
At the time, several African governments admired Pyongyang’s brand of socialist modernity, and the the relationship was sweetened by the offer of free education for African students in North Korea during the 1980s, the report added.
More recently, Pyongyang has built arms factories in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Madagascar and Uganda; it’s also been contracted to construct military sites in Namibia , the report said. Police training and leadership-protection courses provided by North Korea have also been popular across the continent, including Benin, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe.
Pyongyang has also sold ballistic-missile manufacturing lines to Egypt and Libya, while South Africa intercepted a shipment of weapons from North Korea bound for the Congo in 2009, the ISS said.
A UN report in Feb. 2016 indicated Pyongyang was still exporting ballistic missile-related items to the Middle East and Africa.
“Many African states are not fully aware of the nature of the North Korean state,” the ISS warned, explaining that media stories detailing humanitarian challenges in North Korea simply weren’t highlighted in African press.
