North Korea closed several of its embassies in different countries such as Spaindue to obvious financial problems.

The closure of these diplomatic missions will also affect countries such as Angola or Ugandaannounced this week.

According to a South Korean government official quoted by the agency on November 1 Yonhapthese measures “seem to show that already It is impossible for the North to maintain diplomatic missions.as their attempts to obtain foreign currency are met with a “tougher sanctions regime” that is putting pressure on Pyongyang over its weapons tests.

In turn, the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun announced last week that North Korea plans to close its Hong Kong consulate and more than a dozen representative offices in different countries citing “financial problems.”

In the specific case of the Madrid office, the Communist Party of the People of Spain (PCPE), which has good relations with North Korea, published on its website a message that the embassy was notifying “withdrawal of this diplomatic mission from Madrid”.

“From now on, the Embassy of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (the official name of the country) in Italy “He will oversee affairs with Spain,” the message adds.

North Korea’s embassy in Spain is headed by charge d’affaires Seo Yuk-sung, who became the mission’s top official when Spain’s foreign ministry ordered the expulsion of then-ambassador Kim Hyok in September 2017. .-person, because testing of the regime’s weapons of mass destruction.

Kim, North Korea’s first and so far only ambassador to Spain, opened the embassy in 2014 and after leaving office, he became a member of the North Korean delegation that tried to reach an agreement on nuclear disarmament and security guarantees with the United States in 2019, serving as a colleague in discussions with the then US special envoy for North Korea, Stephen Biegun.

The failure of the summit that year in Hanoi between Kim Jong-un and former President Donald Trump ultimately broke down the dialogue, and Kim has not been seen in public since, fueling rumors that he had been removed from office.

A few days before the aforementioned summit in February 2019, the North Korean Embassy in Madridyou were attacked by members of the Free Joseon activist groupwho held the mission staff for hours and tied up Tuck, who the group believed they were trying to help defect.

This was denied and Spanish authorities requested the extradition from the US of two of the attackers, Free Joseon leader Adrian Hong (currently wanted) and former US Marine Christopher Ahn, who is considered fit to stand trial in Spain. in federal court, but whose extradition has not yet been approved.

EFE