More African states severing links with North Korea – Report

A recent search of the UN Register of Conventional Arms (UNROCA) and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Arms Transfers Database has revealed that more African states have formally distanced themselves from North Korea in recent years.

The report dubbed Cooperation between African States and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, states that among the reasons for reduced relations between African countries and North Korea is the awareness of the ills being committed by Kim Jong-un’s regime and United Nations sanctions.

“Following a report by the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in North Korea, Botswana cut diplomatic ties with the DPRK in 2014, stating that it ‘does not wish to be associated with a Government which continues to display such total disregard for the human rights of its citizens”

“Earlier this year Uganda officially disengaged from military and security cooperation with the DPRK, deciding not to renew several cooperation agreements.”

In July 2016, Namibia also cut ties with North Korean companies (including KOMID), announcing it was complying with the UN sanctions against Pyongyang.

“There are indications that other African states are considering similar actions to sever ties with North Korea with the pattern providing an opportunity for both South Korea and western countries to improve relations with African states (either through trade, diplomacy or otherwise).”

The report further points at a reduction in trade between North Korea and African states in the recent past with an average of US$118 million from 2011 to 2015, against US$337 million from 2007 to 2010.

The drop can be largely linked to restriction on the importation of coal, iron, iron ore, gold, titanium ore and vanadium ore from North Korea which has affected Ethiopia, Egypt and Seychelles.

Some of the African countries that have reduced trade activities with North Korea include Botswana, Kenya and South Africa.

Botswana reported limited imports of North Korean commodities: less than US$800 000 in 2014 and less than US$400 000 in 2015. It has not reported any exports of commodities to the DPRK.

In the most recent period, the trade balance between South Africa and the DPRK returned to low levels. In 2015 South Africa’s trade balance with the DPRK was, in fact, negative, with a deficit amounting to US$2.1 million. The DPRK is no longer a market for South African commodities.

From 2006 to 2015 trade activities between Kenya and the DPRK amounted to an average $750,000 per year, characterised by a sharp decline from 2010. The total trade value reached a low point of $210,000 in 2015, against more than $2 million in 2006.

In 2006 the DPRK was Kenya’s 99th biggest trade partner. By 2015 it had dropped to 171st.

Trade activities between Mauritius and the DPRK have also collapsed in the past few years. In 2015 the total value of trade activities between the two countries represented only $20,000 against $2 million in 2007.

According to the available information, Morocco and the DPRK have limited trade activities with the value of total trade activities in 2015 amounting to less than US$1 million.

After the peak in 2010, annual imports by Egypt of North Korean commodities progressively declined to US$5.6 million in 2015. This coincided with strongly diminishing exports of Egyptian commodities to the DPRK;
Some countries have however defied the sanction and increased their trade with North Korea according to the report.
They include Ethiopia, Tanzania and Senegal.

This could be due to Pyongyang regime’s efforts to diversify its economic partnerships to reduce its dependency on China.

Ethiopia, for instance, increased its trade with DPRK since the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution with trade activities between the two countries increasing from $8.7 from 2007 to 2015, against an average $2.5 million from 1998 to 2006.

From 2007 to 2015 the trade value of imports to Tanzania from the DPRK reached an average $2.85 million per year, against an average below $400,000 per year from 1995 to 2006.

From 2009 to 2014 the total trade between Senegal and the DPRK amounted to an average $900,000 per year with the peak being in observed in 2015, when the total trade activities rose to $8 million, as a result of substantial exports of fish from Senegal to the DPRK.

The report further indicates that North Korean involvement in transnational crime including trade in ivory and rhino horns has steadily grown since the mid-1970s.

Among the recommendations include frantic efforts by African countries to curtail illicit networks to reduce the intrinsic social and economic costs they impose, and increase effectiveness of counter smuggling efforts for deterring transfer of nuclear materials and components.