After Seoul claimed that the recent string of embassy closures was a sign of Pyongyang’s dire economic straits, North Korea claimed on Friday( Nov. 3 ) that they were merely” regular affairs” to improve its external relations.
According to state advertising and local government, Pyongyang has closed diplomatic missions in Hong Kong and Spain as well as offices in its American allies Angola and Uganda in the past year.
The closures, according to Seoul,” offered a glimpse of North Korea’s severe economical situation, where it is challenging to maintain even the most basic political relations with conventional allies.”
However, in comments posted on Pyongyang’s foreign ministry site on Friday, an unknown spokesperson claimed that the changes were” part of the regular matters… to showcase their national interests in physical relations.”
Without stating which embassies were being opened or shut down, the official said,” We are either closing or just opening diplomatic missions in other countries in line with the changes in the global environment and the condition physical policy.”
The official continued,” We have previously introduced such actions on a number of times.
According to Seoul’s Unification Ministry, North Korea has political ties to more than 150 nations, but due to financial constraints, the number of operations it keeps abroad has decreased since the 1990s.
According to researchers, the nuclear-armed nation last abandoned diplomatic missions of this magnitude in the middle to the end of the 1990s, when the nation was struck by a shortage that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.