South Korea and Cuba Establish Diplomatic Relations After 20 Years of Effort

On the 14th, South Korea and Cuba announced the establishment of diplomatic relations, marking the fruition of the South Korean government’s long-standing diplomatic efforts towards Cuba, a country with no diplomatic ties.

The news that the two countries’ permanent representatives to the UN in New York had agreed to establish ambassadorial diplomatic relations was announced unexpectedly late at night on the 14th, Korean time.

Hwang Joon-kook, South Korea’s ambassador to the UN, and Gerardo Penalver Portal, Cuba’s ambassador, exchanged diplomatic notes for establishing relations in New York that day, with only a few people in attendance.

Following the exchange of diplomatic notes, the permanent representatives to the UN distributed a press release announcing the establishment of relations between the two countries at 10:05 PM.

The negotiations for establishing relations between the two countries were conducted under extreme security.

The South Korean government had reportedly been working steadily behind the scenes to improve relations with Cuba, while the progress of the discussions was kept highly confidential.

This is interpreted as being due to Cuba, which has maintained a close relationship as a socialist brother country with North Korea, being very sensitive about the negotiations for establishing diplomatic relations with South Korea becoming public.

At one point, there was even speculation in diplomatic circles that there would inevitably be limits to improving relations with South Korea, given Cuba’s relationship with North Korea.

Despite these difficult circumstances, it is known that the two countries have consistently kept the lines of communication open between the authorities behind the door, continuing negotiations to establish diplomatic relations.

Improving relations with Cuba has been a long-standing aspiration for South Korea, going back more than 20 years. “We have been working on this with patience,” said one source.

The two countries severed all exchanges and avoided contact on the international stage after Fidel Castro overthrew the Batista regime and succeeded in the socialist revolution in 1959.

The frigid relationship between the two countries, which continued during the Cold War due to differences in their political systems, reached a turning point in 1999 when South Korea voted in favor of a UN General Assembly resolution to lift the blockade against Cuba for the first time.

South Korea, which had been abstaining from the resolution in consideration of the United States, changed its position on humanitarian grounds, and this is known to have significantly improved Cuba’s perception of South Korea.

In particular, the Park Geun Hye administration devoted efforts to establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries. Then Foreign Minister Yun Byung Se visited Cuba in 2016, the first visit by a South Korean foreign minister to hold an official ministerial meeting, but this did not lead to the establishment of diplomatic relations.

With the advent of the Yoon Suk Yeol administration, efforts to improve relations with Cuba were further strengthened, giving new momentum to the discussions.

As high-level and working-level contacts continued by consistently knocking on the door at every opportunity, several important moments occurred when South Korea and Cuba attended multilateral meetings.

One notable instance is when then Foreign Minister Park Jin met with Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Josefina Vidal in Guatemala at the ACS Summit and Ministerial Meeting in May last year to discuss bilateral relations.

Another decisive moment was when officials from both countries attended the UN General Assembly held in New York in September of the same year.

At that time, it was reported that the South Korean side suggested in the behind-the-scenes contact that they establish diplomatic relations directly without going through an intermediate stage, such as establishing consular ties.

Officials at the working level also continued to visit each other privately during multilateral meetings such as the Forum of East Asia–Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC), in which both countries participate.

In addition, South Korea and Cuba have been using two unofficial channels: the permanent representatives to the UN in New York and the embassies in Mexico. This time, the negotiation for establishing diplomatic relations is known to have been conducted through both channels.

It is rumored that the permanent representative to the UN worked over the Lunar New Year holidays to prepare the exchange of diplomatic notes with Cuba in New York.

A government official described the process of reaching a diplomatic agreement with Cuba by saying, “We have been continuously working to improve relations with Cuba, the only country in Central and South America with which we have not established diplomatic relations, and Cuba has responded to our efforts, leading to the agreement to establish diplomatic relations this time.”

The continuation of civilian exchanges in areas such as economy, trade, and culture also contributed to the successful establishment of diplomatic relations.

The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on trade and investment cooperation with Cuba for the first time in 2002. It opened a trade office in Havana, the capital of Cuba, in 2005.

Recently, as Korean dramas and K-pop have become popular in Cuba, and Cuba has been highlighted as a popular tourist destination among Koreans, it is said that the “mental barrier” between the people of the two countries has largely disappeared.

In Cuba, there is a Hallyu fan club with about 10,000 members.