A delegation from Pyongyang in Zimbabwe on an official visit has been told to leave by an outspoken politician and former member of the unity government that rules the landlocked African nation.
The delegation, led by Supreme People’s Assembly Chairperson Kim Young Nam and Minister of Trade Ri Ryong Nam, is in Harare for talks with Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe, a long standing North Korean ally.
During the meetings between Mugabe and Kim, Mugabe apparently congratulated North Korea “on its achievements including the successful satellite launch,” saying that “these are giving confidence and courage to the Zimbabweans,” according to the Chosun Central News Agency (KCNA). Again according to the KCNA, Mugabe is said to have explained that he “boundlessly reveres President Kim Il Sung, who rendered full support and encouragement to the Zimbabwean people’s struggle for national liberation and their building of a new society.”
In 1981 Kim Il Sung dispatched 106 troops to train the 5th Brigade of the Zimbabwean army, which went on to commit numerous atrocities in the rebellious Zimbabwean region of Matebeleland that resulted in the deaths of an estimated 20,000 people. North Korean engineers also later aided Zimbabwe in the building of the National Heroes Acre, a revolutionary memorial near Harare that Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi described as “a prominent symbol of friendship between Zimbabwe and the DPRK,” reports Zimbabwe’s Herald newspaper.
In anger at this display, Zimbabwean politician Job Sikhala issued a statement demanding that the North Korean delegation leave Zimbabwe within 48 hours since, “North Korea represents the most satanic outpost of tyranny.” He furthermore “urged Mr. Kim to go and organise elections in his country where people are languishing from unmitigated poverty and gross human rights abuses.” He finally pointed out, apparently without irony, that the North Koreans “must not have the leisure of visiting countries which respect human rights,” according to the Zimbabawe Telegraph.
