KAMPALA, Uganda – Uganda is cutting military ties with North Korea to comply with U.N. sanctions over North Korea’s nuclear program, a Ugandan official said Monday following a meeting between President Yoweri Museveni and South Korea’s visiting president.
Uganda’s government is simply “disengaging from military co-operation” and not cutting diplomatic ties with the North Koreans, said Col. Shaban Bantariza, a spokesman for the Ugandan government.
The policy shift came as South Korean President Park Geun-hye visited Uganda. She later flew to neighbouring Kenya for a three-day visit, the last leg of her three-nation African tour in which she has pressed for the isolation of North Korea and has offered trade and development agreements.
Speaking to the African Union in Ethiopia on Friday, Park urged African leaders to support international efforts to persuade its hostile neighbour, North Korea, to stop its production of nuclear weapons.
In Uganda, Park attended a state banquet Sunday hosted by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. At the event, Uganda and South Korea signed 10 co-operation agreements in areas such as defence, health and education. It appears Museveni assured the South Korean delegation he would sever security ties with North Korea, which has good diplomatic relations with Uganda.
North Korea has been training the Ugandan security forces in physical fitness, marine warfare and weapons handling, and senior leaders from North Korea have visited Uganda over the years.
Museveni, in power since 1986, previously praised Pyongyang as an exemplar of the fight against what he described as Western imperialism. In 2014 Museveni hosted a state dinner in honour of North Korea’s ceremonial leader, Kim Yong Nam, and said the North Koreans are “friends who have helped Uganda for a long time.”
Now, the recently re-elected Museveni is looking to seal development deals with Asian partners such as China and South Korea as this East African country tries to industrialize its economy. Chinese contractors are involved in road construction in Uganda and the Chinese national oil company has invested in Uganda’s oil sector.
During her stay in Kenya Park is expected to sign bilateral agreements in security, health, agriculture, ICT, trade and culture, according to South Korean ambassador to Nairobi Young Dae Kwon.
