He says that the approach “was a model example of how the tides of history have changed and where a normal civilization of the international community is heading”
14ymedio, Havana, 1 August 2024 — “Establishing relations with Cuba was the best thing that South Korea did,” said the former North Korean diplomat Ri Il-gyu, who defected from his position at the North Korean Embassy in Havana in 2023. As he revealed in an interview with Reuters, one of his functions as a diplomatic representative on the Island was precisely to boycott the negotiations with Seoul. “I did everything possible to prevent it,” he acknowledges, but says that the approach “was a model example of how the tides of history have changed and where a normal civilization of the international community is heading.”
That may be the case perhaps for South Korea, which seeks, among other objectives, to fracture the link of the North with one of its greatest historical allies. But for Havana, in serious financial trouble, the opening of a South Korean headquarters on the Island is something more than a door through which the investments of one of the world’s leading technology countries can pass.
“It was a model example of how the tides of history have changed and where a normal civilization of the international community is heading”
Seoul has also declared its interest in the goods that Havana has to offer. “Cuba has a considerable source of key mineral resources for the production of electric vehicles, such as cobalt and nickel,” the South Korean Presidential Office said last February.
Ri, however, did not approach the international press just to review his functions as a diplomat on the Island, something he had already done this July, when he gave an interview from Seoul and talked about his disagreements with the North Korean regime and his reasons for deserting: the “harassment” of his colleagues and Pyongyang’s refusal to allow his cervical injury to be treated in Mexico. After the pandemic, “when they began (in North Korea) to reopen and summon those who worked abroad at the beginning of 2023, they asked them to bring back home anything from used toothbrushes to spoons, saying that there was nothing there,” he recalls.
Now, from Seoul, the former official asks to meet with Donald Trump if he wins the U.S. elections, to discuss North Korea’s plans, which, he says, place Washington, Moscow and Tokyo among its priorities.
Trump’s rapprochement with North Korea during his term was a battle that Pyongyang lost, explains Ri, who blames North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un for his inexperience in international relations, in addition to sending “inexperienced and clueless” military commanders for nuclear negotiations.
“This time, the Foreign Ministry would definitely gain power and take the reins, and it will not be so easy for Trump to tie North Korea hands and feet again for four years without giving anything (in return)” as happened in 2019, he explains.
Ri maintains that Pyongyang would find a greater benefit in avoiding future sanctions from the United States and eliminating the current ones
For Ri, the strengthening of ties with Russia – which included Vladimir Putin’s visit to North Korea last June – in matters of security and military aid – is a symptom that the United States has lost part of its negotiating capacity against the North Korean regime. “The Russians got their hands dirty by participating in illicit transactions, and thanks to this, North Korea no longer needs to depend on the United States to lift the sanctions, which essentially means that they have stripped the United States of a key negotiation tactic,” he believes.
Even so, Ri maintains that Pyongyang would find a greater benefit in avoiding future sanctions from the United States and eliminating the current ones, so one of Kim’s government’s plans is to resume nuclear negotiations if Trump is in the White House. “The diplomats of Pyongyang were drawing up a strategy for that scenario, with the aim of lifting sanctions on their weapons programs, eliminating their designation as a state sponsor of terrorism and obtaining economic aid,” the former official says.
If these agreements are reached, only Japan stands in the way of Pyongyang and its plans. Japan is another uncomfortable neighbor that in recent weeks has strengthened its military ties with the United States to curb North Korea’s intentions.
According to Ri, Kim still has an opportunity with Tokyo, which has been interested on numerous occasions in resuming talks with North Korea, but tensions remain over the alleged 17 Japanese kidnapped by Pyongyang during the 70s and 80s, of which only five have been able to return.
Kim Jong-il, the father of the current North Korean leader, denied the kidnapping of Japanese citizens, but Kim Jong-un was willing to discard that policy in order to obtain economic aid. “They are saying that the matter was resolved, but that is only to increase his negotiating power until he makes concessions at a summit,” Ri evaluates.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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