A curious feature of KCNA dispatches from Pyongyang is their occasional resort to “friendship meetings” in developing countries where praise is allegedly levied at Kim Jong Il and North Korea’s songun politics.
A couple of days ago this one popped up:
DPRK Important Days Observed in Mexico
Pyongyang, November 27 (KCNA) — A function took place in Mexico on Nov. 21 on the occasions of the 18th anniversary of General Secretary Kim Jong Il’s assumption of the supreme commandership of the Korean People’s Army and the 92nd birth anniversary of Kim Jong Suk, anti-Japanese heroine.
Attending it were personages of political parties, organizations and institutions including the Institutional Revolutionary Party and the Democratic Revolutionary Party of Mexico, the Mexico-Korea Friendship Association and the Nezauacoyotl city office and masses.
Present there on invitation were the DPRK ambassador to Mexico and staff members of his embassy there.
The mayor of Nezauacoyotl and other speakers praised Kim Jong Il for having led the just cause of the Korean people under the uplifted banner of independence.
They stressed that the Korean people would surely emerge victorious in the cause of building a great prosperous and powerful nation, true to the Songun politics of Kim Jong Il.
They highly lauded the immortal life and noble exploits of Kim Jong Suk who made a great contribution to accomplishing the Juche-oriented Songun revolutionary cause.
A performance was given by artistes at the function.
The DPRK’s ambassador was there, so it must have been some sight. Nezauacoyotl is in the northeast corner of Mexico city and means “fasting coyote.” It seems to be a popular locale for North Korea, as the same place allegedly made Kim Jong Il an honorary citizen last July 16, 2003.
(See the Spanish-language section of this old KCNA dispatch; the sycophancy reaches a height with the last sentence: “subrayo que tener a su excelencia kim jong il como ciudadano honorario es la maxima gloria e infinito orgullo para si mismo y todos los demas ciudadanos.”)
Recently, the city’s homepage ignored the visit of the DPRK ambassador to focus instead on preventing violence against women and assuring city residents that stick-ups of local bus transportation would not be repeated. Things in North Korea are bad, but we don’t have too many reported instances of highway robbery (although Good Friends has released a couple of anecdotes suggesting that it happens on the road from Hyesan to Kanggye every so often).
Although he’s no North Korean apologist, famed American leftist peace activist Noam Chomsky was recently in Mexico City and spoke at UNAM, the city university.
We might call of this just fodder for KCNA, but it’s worth noting that Mexico can play an active role at the UN, and, as this foreign affairs page reports, Mexico voted to put sanctions on North Korea after its May 2009 nuclear test.
According to this website, the DPRK has an embassy in Mexico, but no website of its own:
North Korea Embassy , Mexico
Eugenio Sue No. 332, (Polanco), Delegación Miguel Hidalgo
11550
México City
Mexico
Phone:
+52-55-55451871
Fax:
+52-55-52030019
Email:
dprkoreaemb@prodigy.net.mx
Charles Armstrong at Columbia University is working on the globalization of juche by North Korea in the 1960s and 1970s; his work may be worth watching when it comes to making some headway into understanding North Korea’s ties to the Latin American world.
Adam Cathcart 