US U-turn sees India strengthen North Korea ties
India dispatched its junior minister of external relations, V.K. Singh, on a rare trip to North Korea on May 16 — the first such ministerial visit in about two decades. The visit took place just a few days after the country had nominated Atul Malhari Gotsurve as its new ambassador to the hermit kingdom. He is the first official from the Indian diplomatic corps to take on the role as the previous Indian ambassadors have been officials of a much lower grade.
These two distinct initiatives indicate a swift change in India’s approach toward Pyongyang and bring the ties between the two nations to a complete circle. After almost five decades of underplaying its relations with North Korea, India finally seems ready to again acknowledge this relationship openly, and is taking steps to strengthen the ties that seemed to embarrass it until recently. India seems to have been encouraged in being public about this relationship by the overtures made by Pyongyang’s strongman Kim Jong Un toward South Korea, as well as the United States.
India-North Korea ties date back to the days of the Korean War, when India was a neutral nation, acting on behalf of the UN in order to bring peace and stability to the Korean Peninsula. New Delhi also went on to welcome Pyongyang into the Non-Aligned Movement and insisted that the Korean question was a bilateral matter between the two Koreas, with outside powers having no role to play in settling the issue. This position obviously irked both communist China and the US and its allies.
New Delhi-Pyongyang cooperation intensified in 1973 with the opening of their respective embassies and the mounting of a regular diplomatic, cultural and economic relationship. Over time, India emerged as the second-largest trading partner of North Korea behind China, with trade increasing from about $100 million a year in the early 2000s to about $1 billion in 2009. The figure has subsequently declined, largely due to the UN economic sanctions imposed on North Korea.
India has also trained North Korean students in diverse areas, including agriculture, information technology, defense and space. This cooperation, especially in space and defense, was viewed with great suspicion by the West as it was believed to have helped North Korea in its missile program. India’s trade with Korea and its help in providing food during the severe crisis of 2011 were also hardly appreciated by the West.
India has so far managed to keep its relationship with North Korea out of the spotlight, even though more than two dozen bilateral visits took place between New Delhi and Pyongyang between 2003 and 2013. Almost all of them were away from the media’s gaze, so much so that there is no public documentation of these visits.
Though India managed to preserve the relationship and carry on trading with Pyongyang despite mounting criticism, it had to succumb when the UN imposed sanctions on North Korea for carrying out nuclear tests in 2013. It was at that time that India was forced to abandon its long-time friend and bilateral trade plunged.
However, India kept alive its contacts with North Korea and several visits, from both nations, took place between 2013 and 2017. While the Obama administration may have been less troubled by India’s exchanges with Kim’s government, Donald Trump’s arrival in the White House saw it become evident that Washington wanted India to snap its ties with Pyongyang.
India’s trade with Korea and its help in providing food during the severe crisis of 2011 were also hardly appreciated by the West.
Ranvir S. Nayar
So irritated was the US with these exchanges that two senior officials in the Trump administration specifically raised the issue during their visits to India. The first was in April 2017, when then-National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster expressed in his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi the US concerns over India’s continuing ties with North Korea.
Later, in October 2017, then-US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson took the issue up with his Indian counterpart, Sushma Swaraj, during his visit to New Delhi. However, India said that some level of diplomatic presence in Pyongyang was necessary. “I told secretary Tillerson that some of their friendly countries should maintain embassies there so that some channels of communication are kept open,” Swaraj was quoted as telling media after the meeting.
The situation has evolved dramatically since these exchanges. Trump’s own view of Kim seems to have undergone a radical change and the two leaders have been talking of organizing the first summit between a sitting US President and a North Korean leader since the war some 65 years ago. With the US engaging in frequent discussions with North Korea and holding regular meetings and exchanges at an official level, it does seem to have changed the manner in which the Americans see India’s own ties with Pyongyang.
Some US analysts have begun to acknowledge that India’s ties and constant engagement with Pyongyang could actually help the US figure out how to handle Kim’s reputed unpredictability and frequent turnarounds, as well as gauge how serious he may be in his promises and threats, both of which he makes regularly.
It was in this context and certainly encouraged by the US’s own growing engagement with Pyongyang that India took some unusually high-profile measures in its relationship with North Korea. Firstly, it named a senior official of its diplomatic corps as the ambassador, breaking past tradition of only deputing very junior officials.
Soon afterwards, India sent its junior minister of external affairs to hold unusually open and publicized discussions with his North Korean counterparts. This indicates a certain degree of Washington agreeing to this process and developing India as a parallel channel of talks with Pyongyang, besides China, with whom the US shares a rather uneasy relationship.
- Ranvir S. Nayar is managing editor of Media India Group, a global platform based in Europe and India, which encompasses publishing, communication, and consultation services.
