The media, academics, and the “Cuba Experts” are baffled by the increased coziness between North Korea’s corrupt and murderously repressive communist dictatorship and Cuba’s corrupt and murderously repressive communist dictatorship. What in the world can two rogue and criminal regimes who are sworn enemies of the U.S. be talking about?
For some, it seems, it is a mystery.
Nora Gamez Torres in The Miami Herald:
North Korea seems to be getting cozy with Cuba
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has sent a second envoy to Cuba in less than two months for diplomatic exchanges, the details of which remain unknown.
Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel met Tuesday with Choe Ryong Hae, a member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK). The Cuban Communist Party’s official Granma newspaper described Choe as “a special envoy of comrade Kim Jong-un.”
Granma added that Choe delivered personal letters from the North Korean leader to Díaz-Canel and former Cuban leader Raúl Castro, who remains first secretary of the Cuban Communist Party. Granma did not detail the content of the letters but reported that Choe and Díaz-Canel discussed “issues of mutual interest on the international agenda.”
Choe is considered the most powerful man in North Korea after Kim, and second in command of the country’s military. He arrived in Havana last week and met with Vice President Salvador Mesa and Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez.
Kim sent another trusted envoy, Ri Su Yong, in July to deliver a verbal message to Castro, according to the North Korean foreign ministry. Granma reported the visit in a single paragraph that said Ri, vice president of the WPK and head of its international relations department, “carried a message … from Kim Jong-un.”
Experts offered various insights for the visits.
“It would be pure speculation to state what the content of the message might be, though I can’t imagine it has anything to do with denuclearization talks,” said Frank Mora, director of the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center at Florida International University. “Part of the message might just be the North Koreans providing an update to a long-standing friend about where things stand on the talks regarding ‘the common imperialist enemy.’ “
“There have been North Korean senior military officers that have visited Cuba over the last few years with the purpose of ‘deepening ties of solidarity’ at perceived times of tensions with the U.S.,” he added.
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