Asia Times: PYONGYANG WATCH


	June 16, 2001	atimes.com

The Koreas

PYONGYANG WATCH
Shenanigans in South Asia

By Aidan Foster-Carter

Last week, probing North Korea's military links with Pakistan led on to a look at its broader ties with what we used to call the Third World - a phrase that seems to have fallen from favor of late, possibly because there's no longer a Second World.

At a time when the DPRK is widely seen as reaching out to all and sundry, it's useful to remember that this is not wholly new. North Korean diplomacy has a long history, if not always a glorious or successful one. Rather than assume that we're starting from ground zero, it pays to examine that record and ponder its lessons. One may hope Pyongyang does the same.

Having last time examined North Korean relations with Africa (Out of Africa, Jun 9) and (briefly) Latin America, as well as Kim Il-sung's not unskillful maneuverings amid the Sino-Soviet dispute and within the non-aligned movement (NAM), here we shift the focus to Korea's own continent. Asia is big, so we'll divide it up. This time we examine two regions, South and Central Asia. Future articles will extend our gaze to West Asia - or the Middle East, to use the Eurocentric yet rarely challenged term - and above all Southeast Asia, which increasingly if belatedly is nowadays a major focus of Pyongyang's Asian diplomacy.

First, South Asia. India and Pakistan have long recognized both Koreas and opened embassies in both capitals, perhaps the first states to do this. In the Korean War, India was a diplomatic conduit between China and the United States. Later ties with the DPRK were never close, and got chillier as Pyongyang's nukes-for-missiles relations with Pakistan grew. But business is thriving: Indian exports to North Korea have shot up 10-fold in two years, from US$14 million in 1998 to $137 million last year. Let's hope they're getting paid.

Two smaller countries show the downside of DPRK diplomacy. In 1970 Sri Lanka recognized North Korea, which opened an embassy - only to be kicked out six months later, for funding and training the JVP guerrilla movement (remember them? Sinhalese chauvinists, masquerading as Maoists. This was way before the Tamil Tigers.) Ties were restored in 1975, and next year Pyongyang sent a 100-strong team to the Fifth NAM summit in Colombo - but were made to shut down the massive radio on their ship moored in the harbor, suspected of eavesdropping on other delegations. How to win friends, huh?

With Nepal, it's less a case of subversion and spooks than farce and sleaze. Pyongyang has long been friendly with Nepal's Parliamentary Marxist-Leninist parties. In 1977 the Nepalese government made an official protest about North Korean activities in the countryside. No, this time they weren't training Maoist guerrillas - just flooding the Himalayas with turgid propaganda tomes, in such volume that rural postmen complained about the extra weight they were having to hump over mountain passes and trails.

Sleaze? The usual. In 1986 a DPRK diplomat fled Kathmandu after 1,800 wristwatches and gold worth $22,000 were found in his bags. Just as in 1983 when Pakistan expelled two embassy staffers for trying to smuggle in 4,592 watches, while India deported another (watches and diamonds). Such low-life stunts are routine, worldwide, and ongoing. The phrase rogue state springs to mind. More on this in future.

For now, let's move inland to the cleaner air of the steppes of central Asia. Two of the post-Soviet republics, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, have sizeable ethnic Korean minorities - deported in the 1930s from the Soviet far east, since Stalin (who clearly didn't know Koreans) feared they'd be a fifth column for Japan. Few ever showed much interest in or identification with North Korea. By contrast, Seoul was quick to win influence once it gained entry to the region in the 1990s. Daewoo built a car plant in Uzbekistan (any takers?), and Kazakh president Nazarbayev brought in South Korean advisers.

But in a minor coup, Pyongyang last year managed to buy a squadron of surplus Kazakh airforce MiGs (cheap, too) before anyone noticed. Red faces in Almaty. There are more legitimate links via labor. Hyundai had plans to hire North Korean workers for a project in Turkmenistan, though it's not clear if this has gone ahead. Meanwhile, a pay dispute at KEDO's light water reactor site at Kumho has led to North Korean workers being replaced by, of all people, 500 Uzbeks - who are much cheaper.

Finally, let's not forget Mongolia. Never a close ally even in the days of international communism - Kim Il-sung looked askance at the Mongols' unswerving loyalty to Moscow - relations have got worse in the post-Cold War era. Yet again there are tawdry tales of crime. Mongolia expelled two DPRK diplomats for their latest scam (more lucrative than watches) - passing fake $100 bills. Last year North Korea closed its embassy in Ulaan Baatar: ostensibly to save money, but also to express displeasure for Mongolia's inviting Kim Dae-jung for a state visit. Now they have another bone to pick.

Mongolia is emerging as a transit haven for North Korean refugees - despite the vast distances, gruelling terrain and harsh weather they must brave to seek such sanctuary. Seven centuries after Genghis Khan laid waste to Korea, his heirs are kinder to North Koreans than their own latter-day khan is. So roll history's wheels.

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