The DPRK and Cuba in the Initial Period of Bilateral Relations (1960–1965): The Limits of “Socialist Solidarity”

Abstract

In this article, drawing on recently declassified archive sources from the Soviet embassy in Pyongyang, the author aims to refute the traditional view of North Korean-Cuban relations as historically close and equal, based on socialist solidarity and a common struggle against imperialism. In it, she argues that for North Korea, its “unbreakable friendship” with Cuba was motivated by more than just a desire to help the “brotherly country” in its anti-imperialist struggle. Exploring the early phase of bilateral relations, the author looks behind the propaganda façade of internationalism and socialist solidarity to examine the pragmatic motives behind North Korean desire to establish strong relations with the new socialist Cuba. She argues that North Korea originally sought to adopt the same senior partner role to Cuba that the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries had with respect to North Korea itself, promoting a North Korean political and ideological model in Cuba and contrasting it with both the Soviet and Chinese models. North Korea used the growing Sino-Soviet rift to discredit both the Soviet Union and China, while simultaneously promoting itself and its model as an alternative to the two quarrelling socialist giants. The study of archival sources provides a more detailed insight into the early phase of North Korean-Cuban relations and contributes to an understanding of North Korean foreign policy and its characteristic features still in place today.