South Korea’s High-Level Bilateral Meetings with African Countries Concerning Nuclear North Korea

Abstract

Many African countries have been alleged to serve North Korea as sources of hard currency, by purchasing weapons and military equipment and/or bringing military trainers and construction workers from North Korea, in violation of United Nations (UN) sanctions on North Korea. Focusing on high-level bilateral meetings between South Korea and African states during the period of October 14, 2006-December 31, 2019, this study examines the extent to which South Korea has utilized bilateral diplomacy as a tool to seek African cooperation for North Korea’s denuclearization and to dissuade African countries from helping North Korea evade sanctions. We find that North Korea’s denuclearization and UN sanctions, overall, have received only peripheral attention in South Korea’s bilateral diplomatic discourse with African states and there is no significant difference between progressive and conservative administrations in this regard. and UN on Korea. The purpose of this study is to examine South Korea’s bilateral diplomatic engagement with African countries for African support on North Korea’s denuclearization and UN sanctions on North Korea, focusing on high-level face-to-face meetings involving heads of government and ministers of foreign affairs of South Korea and African states. The study covers the period ensuing UN Security Council Resolution 1718, passed on October 14, 2006 in response to North Korea’s first nuclear test, up to December 31, 2019. Specifically, we examine (1) the overall significance of North Korea’s denuclearization and UN Security Council sanctions in high-level bilateral meetings between South Korea and African countries and (2) whether the different approaches of the progressive and conservative South Korean administrations to North Korea have had any effect on addressing those