SEOUL, Nov. 1 (UPI) — North Korea has shuttered its embassy in Spain, a document showed Wednesday, following announcements earlier this week that it was closing two diplomatic missions in Africa as reports swirl that the regime is suffering from the impact of international sanctions.
Pyongyang announced the closure of its Spanish embassy in a note verbale shared on the website of the Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain, or PCPE. The note, originally dated October 26, said that the North Korean mission in Italy would handle matters with Spain going forward.
In a separate commentary, the PCPE said that it had received information from the North Korean embassy that it was closing due to the “impossibility of being able to develop mutually beneficial relations with institutions, commercial and cultural entities, by the application of the sanctions that North American imperialism imposes.”
In 2019, the Madrid embassy was in the headlines when members of an anti-Pyongyang group broke in, stealing computers and documents and roughing up staff members, according to a Spanish court. The group, called Free Joseon, later said that it shared the stolen information with the FBI.
The closure follows reports in North Korean state media and African media outlets over the past week that the regime’s ambassadors paid farewell visits to the presidents of Angola and Uganda as they shuttered their missions in the two capitals.
Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun also reported last week that North Korea told Beijing that it will close its embassy in Hong Kong and plans to shut down more than a dozen missions elsewhere in the world.
The moves underscore North Korea’s economic woes and its difficulties in raising funds overseas, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said, according to a report in news agency Yonhap.
“The flurry of measures appears to show that it is no longer feasible for the North to maintain diplomatic missions as their efforts to obtain foreign currency have stumbled due to strengthened sanctions,” a ministry official told local reporters on the condition of anonymity.
North Korea has long used its overseas embassies as fronts for commercial activities and illicit trade, according to the United Nations.
“Diplomats of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea continue to play a key role in sanctions evasion,” a 2019 report by a panel of experts to the U.N. Security Council concluded, citing activities such as facilitating illegal shipments of goods and using bank accounts and diplomatic transfers to send funds back to the North.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is the official name of North Korea.
In recent years, North Korea has increasingly turned to cybercrime to fund its weapons programs. Hackers for the isolated regime stole more than $1.7 billion in cryptocurrency last year alone, according to a September report by a U.N. panel of experts.
Other schemes, such as disguising the identity of IT workers to gain freelance employment around the world, also bring in millions of dollars a year, Washington said last month.
North Korea had 53 diplomatic missions overseas, including three consulates and three representative offices, before the latest announcements of closures, according to data from Seoul’s Unification Ministry.
