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 an
