Recent embassy closures 'regular affairs' to revamp diplomatic efficiency, says North Korea

North Korea on Friday refuted Seoul’s accusation that Pyongyang’s recent wave of embassy closures was an indication of its severe economic conditions, saying that the closures were just “regular affairs” meant to strengthen ties with other countries. According to media reports and analysts, North Korea is about to close as many as dozen embassies, including ones in Spain, Hong Kong, and several African nations. This might result in the closure of almost twenty-five percent of its operations globally.

A North Korean foreign ministry spokesperson confirmed on the ministry website that some missions were closing while adding that new ones were opening.

“We are carrying out operations to withdraw and establish diplomatic missions in accordance with changing global environments and national foreign policy,” Reuters quoted the spokesperson as saying.

“We have also introduced such measures on several occasions in the past,” the spokesperson added. Seoul said this week the closures offered a “glimpse of North Korea’s dire economic situation, where it is difficult to maintain even minimal diplomatic relations with traditional allies”. North Korea has diplomatic ties with more than 150 countries, according to Seoul’s Unification Ministry, but the number of missions it maintains overseas has been shrinking since the 1990s due to financial constraints. Experts say the last time the nuclear-armed country dropped diplomatic missions on this scale was in the mid-to-late 1990s when the country was hit by a famine in which hundreds of thousands of people died - estimates range into the millions. With inputs from agencies