North Korea's Aid to Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis*

Abstract

This study seeks to explain why North Korea provided aid to Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It considers the background to the decision to provide support to Havana, the form that such support took, and its significance. The reason why North Korea fully supported Cuba was that they shared a common enemy and historical and institutional background, such as experiences of colonialism, revolution, war, division, and anti‐American struggle. Cuba was also the first socialist country in the region. North Korea judged the revolutionary potential of Latin America and its value as highly useful for a unification of the Korean Peninsula led by North Korea. North Korea issued the first government statement that politically supported Cuba and ordered North Korean students, embassy officials and their families in Cuba to participate in combat. North Korea provided economic and military supplies through production increase movements as well as technical support in the heavy industry. The North Korea–Cuba Committee for Solidarity was established to oversee projects for friendly cooperation and to strengthen ties between their future generations of revolutionaries. North Korea's aid to Cuba played a critical role in declaring themselves as a de facto country by completely integrating their national interests.