Essay on the Relationship between D.P.R. Korea and Africa: Exhibition in “International Friendship Exhibition House” as the Clue

This paper is an essay on the relationship between Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Africa, the theme which has been hardly researched in Japan, the nearest neighbor of D.P.R.K.. According to her peculiar state system, and her cool or hostile relationship with developed states including Japan, D.P.R.K. is used to be given easy images such as “isolated state in the international society”. However D.P.R.K., as a member of the “Third World”, has held adequate place in the international society. Especially, Africa is the region which has had the closest ties with D.P.R.K. in the world, and has been the strongest base in D.P.R.K. foreign policy. So Analysis of D.P.R.K. foreign policy to Africa is meaningful to understand D.P.R.K. more practically. Regrettably, it is not easy for us to research demonstratively on it because of extremely dictatorial and closed regime of D.P.R.K.. In this paper, I firstly introduce the exhibition on the relationship between African states and D.P.R.K. in “International Friendship Exhibition House” in Mt. Myohyang, D.P.R.K., where I visited in 2007 and 2008. From the exhibition, we may read that D.P.R.K. has attached importance to close relationship with “neo-patrimonialism” or “personal rule” authoritarian regimes and national liberation movements in her foreign policy to Africa. Secondly, I outline the development of D.P.R.K. foreign policy to Africa by dividing four terms, and examine factors behind its rise and fall.