Paper short abstract:

This paper examines an overlooked aspect of North Korea's role in African decolonial transitions: the development of a new global order. Using the 1987 Pyongyang Conference for South-South Cooperation as a case study, this paper discusses the North Korean-African attempts at worldmaking.

Paper long abstract:

This chapter examines North Korea’s involvement in African decolonial transitions. The reign of Kim Il Sung (1948-1994) coincided with the gradual liberation of the African continent, and North Korea provided assistance to a variety of African liberation movements and postcolonial governments. North Korea helped African political elites to achieve and consolidate national independence, while in return North Korea received support in the United Nations and hard foreign currency.

This chapter argues that North Korean-African cooperation went a step further: North Koreans and Africans discussed the development of a new global order. The Pyongyang Conference for South-South Cooperation, held in 1987, is a window into this overlooked dimension of North Korea’s role in African decolonial transitions. ‘Let us develop South-South cooperation’ said Kim in 1987 at the Pyongyang conference, a message that resonated with African political elites highly invested in world-making.

This chapter thus moves beyond a pragmatic, transactional understanding of North Korean-African relations and examines the idealism behind Kim Il Sung’s connections to the African continent. The Pyongyang conference has so far been ignored in the historiography, but a recent discovery of South Korean diplomatic cables makes it possible to produce the first description and analysis of this event. It offers an opportunity to interrogate larger analytical questions, such as North Korea’s role in the Cold War, the importance of Africa for North Korean diplomacy, and the question whether North Korean behavior was motivated by ideology or pragmatism.